The spreading drug wars

Re “No longer ‘next door,’ ” Nov. 16

How on Earth did our so-called leaders leave our borders so carelessly unguarded that our cities have become battlegrounds for drug wars?

It seems that those in Washington have been so immersed in their own culture of corruption, so busy scheming to line their own pockets, that they have failed in yet another area of responsibility to the American people. It remains to be seen if we have thrown enough bums out in the recent election to improve this sad state of affairs.

Woody McBreairty

West Hollywood

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The failed “war on drugs” is a variation on the failed prohibition of alcoholic beverages during the 1920s and 1930s.

It has not brought any reduction in drug use, if the soaring prison populations of nonviolent drug users is any indication. It has cost us billions of dollars a year and destabilized countries such as Colombia and Mexico. It is now destabilizing the United States, as the kidnapping and violence move out of the border areas and ghettos and into upscale neighborhoods.

You don’t see dealers going into our high schools and selling beer or cigarettes, because there’s no profit in pushing a substance that is legal. Drugs should be treated like alcohol and nicotine: Regulate them and tax them. A whole criminal class in the U.S., Mexico, Colombia and Afghanistan most likely would see the funding for their criminal enterprises dry up immediately.

Lucy Cole

Eagle Rock