We recieved the following fundraising letter from Walter Cronkite, "the most trusted man in America." The letter is legitimate, we have verified the fact. We're NOT publishing this as an endorsement of the organization (the Drug Policy Alliance.) We were struck by the extraordinary courage that it took for this most well respected journalist to take this politically unpopular position! For this reason we're printing his letter with the fundraising pitch edited out.

Dear Friend,

As anchorman of the CBS Evening News, I signed off my nightly broadcasts for nearly two decades with a simple statement; "And that's the way it is."

To me that encapsulates the newsman's highest ideal: to report the facts as he sees them, without regard for the consequesces or controversy that may ensue.

Sadly, that is not an ethic to which all politicians aspire---least of all in a time of war.

I remember, I covered the Vietnam War. I remember the lies that were told, the lives that were lost---and the shock when, twenty years after the war ended, Former Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara admitted he knew it was a mistake all along.

Today, our nation is fighting two wars: one abroad and one at home. While the war in Iraq is in the headlines, the other war is still being fought on our streets. Its casualties are the wasted lives of our own citizens.

I am speaking of the war on drugs.

And I cannot help but wonder how many more lives, and how much more money, will be wasted before another Robert McNamara admits what is plain to see: the War on Drugs is a failure.

While the politicians stutter and stall---while they chase their losses by claiming we could win this war if only we commited more recourses, jailed more people and knocked down more doors---who will tell the American people the truth... "the way it is"?

...

When I wanted to learn the truth about the War on Drugs, I took the same approach I did to the war in Vietnam: I hit the streets and reported the story myself. I sought out the people whose lives were affected.

Allow me to introduce some of them.

Nicole Richardson was 18-years-old when her boyfriend, Jeff, sold nine grams of LSD to undercover federal agents. She had nothing to do with the sale. There was no reason to believe she was involved in drug dealing in any way.

But then an agent posing as another drug dealer called and asked to speak to Jeff. Nicole replied that he wasn't home, but gave the man a number where she thought he could be reached.

An innocent gesture? It sounds that way to me. But to federal prosecutors, simply giving out a phone number made Nicole Richardson a part of a drug dealing conspiracy.

Under draconian mandatory minimum sentences, she was sentenced to federal prison for ten years without possibility of parole.

To pile irony on top of injustice, her boyfriend---who actually knew something about dealing drugs---was able to trade information for a reduced sentence of five years. Precicely because she knew nothing, Nicole had nothing with which to barter.

...

In Tulia, Texas, an investigator fabricated evidence that sent one out of ten of the town's African American residents to jail on trumped-up charges in one of the most despicable travesties of justice this reporter has ever seen.

The federal government has fought terminally ill patients whose doctors say medical marijuana could provide a modicum of relief from their suffering... as though a cancer patient who uses marijuana to relieve the wrenching nausea caused by chemotherapy is somehow a criminal who threatens the public.

People who do genuinely have a problem with drugs, meanwhile, are being imprisoned when what they really need is treatment.

And what is the impact of this policy?

It surely hasn't made the streets safer. Instead, we have locked up literally millions of people ... who have caused little or no harm to others---wasting recources that that could be used for counter-terrorism, reducing violent crime, or catching white collar criminals.

With police wielding unprecedented powers to invade privacy, tap phones and conduct searches, seemingly at random, our civil liberties are in a very precarious position.

Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent on this effort---with no one held accountable for its failure.

Amid the chiches of the Drug War, our country has lost sight of the scientific facts. Amid the rhetoric of our leaders, we've become blind to reality: The War on Drugs, as it currently fought, is too expensive, and too inhumane.

But nothing will change until someone has the courage to stand up and say what so may politicians privately know: The War on Drugs has failed.

...

And that's the way it is.

Walter Cronkite

-------------------

http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/455/police_drug_corruption

In El Paso,Tx, a Border Patrol agent was arrested September 15 on charges he accepted bribes to allow dope through a border checkpoint, the Associated Press reported. According to the criminal complaint, Arturo Arzate, a 21-year Border Patrol veteran, allegedly met with smugglers and agreed to take payments of $50 for each kilogram of marijuana and $1,000 for each kilo of cocaine he let get through. The feds have accused him of receiving $16,000 in bribes while he was under an investigation that began last fall. Arzate's downfall began when an informant told the FBI he had seen Arzate meeting with a known drug trafficker. He is charged with bribery, conspiracy, and knowingly distributing a controlled substance.

In Irvington, New Jersey, a police officer was arrested last Friday on charges he stole drugs, handguns, and case files from the departmental evidence locker, the Associated Press reported. Irvington Police Officer Frederick Southerland went down after he failed to pay rent on a storage unit. The items in the storage unit were sold at auction, and when the buyer discovered five pistols, cocaine, heroin, and marijuana, he notified authorities, who soon swooped in on Southerland. The 18-year veteran officer is now charged with official misconduct and receiving stolen property and faces up to 10 years in prison.

In Homer, Louisiana, one Union Parish Detention Center guard was arrested September 21 and another was being sought on charges they smuggled marijuana in to a jail inmate, according to the Associated Press. Guard Nicholas Wilson, 21, was booked and bailed out pending trial, while guard James Webb, 23, was on the lam at last report. The pair went down after detectives found an ounce of weed in an inmate's cell, and Wilson admitted his involvement and ratted out Webb. The missing Webb faces charges of distribution of marijuana, malfeasance in office, conspiracy to distribute marijuana, and conspiracy to introduce contraband into a penal institution. Wilson is charged with one count -- conspiracy to introduce contraband.

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