THE COCAINE WAR

I am an inner-city elementary school teacher. You cannot have a successful “Just Say No” program. People in the inner city know drugs are money, and as long as it’s the only job in town, they will consider it. As Mayor Kurt Schmoke of Baltimore wrote: “Profit is the engine driving drug traffickers.” Why is it we continue to allow the large sums of money to get into and out of our banking system? My guess is that the engine of profit that moves the drug trafficker is the same one that allows financial institutions to take in these funds when they know they shouldn’t. Why can’t we investigate these banks? Are we afraid of what we will find?

LYLE T. LINDQUIST

Los Angeles