The war we lost

To the editor:
    The greatest conservative minds, William F Buckley, Milton Friedman, Henry Hyde, figured out long ago that the government’s War on Drugs was lost. And they had the courage to say it. They had come to the conclusion, just as they had with Prohibition, that replacing one scourge (private drug/alcohol abuse) with another scourge (a vast and unconstitutional government program that imprisoned millions, enriched criminal gangs, seized billions of dollars in private property, cost trillions of dollars, weakened the Bill of Rights) was not progress. After all of the billions spent and lives destroyed, we have exactly the same problem we had before this war: rising levels of private drug abuse.
    Now comes Professor John Frary, saying on MPBN: “Alright, Charlie. I can see you’re a hostile questioner. You’re asking a conservative Republican whether he wants to legalize marijuana. Charlie, I have to tell you that I’m inclined more and more to favor that. That it should be treated like alcohol and regulated like alcohol. That people who sell marijuana to minors should be penalized like those who sell alcohol to minors. I think this has been going on and on, has cost huge sums of money. We’re not winning this war on drugs. The whole thing may have to be given a whole new look.”
    Frary makes it clear he is not for drugs, or rap music for that matter, but he is opposed to the War on Drugs, and tired of people pretending marijuana is heroin. As he puts it: “Just because I deplore blended scotch doesn’t mean I was in favor of Prohibition.”
    That’s the refreshing thing about John Frary. He not only thinks for himself, he tells you exactly what he thinks. Why aren’t we building a refinery at Loring? Why are we tearing out the hydro-electric dams and tearing up the railroads? Why are we using helicopters that should be in Afghanistan looking for Osama Bin Laden to look for weeds in Maine? Why does the state of Maine prosecute medical marijuana users when 63 percent of the people voted to legalize it in 1999? Why isn’t any other politician talking about these real issues?
    John Frary has my vote.
Dr. William Reid III
Chairman, Frary for Congress
New Sharon