The Crackdown in Our Town

We're experiencing a protracted police state crackdown here in Madison. Every day brings news of some new authoritarian development; for example, the drug-sniffing police dogs now allowed to patrol Madison's public middle and high schools. If the supposed heroin epidemic that is now troubling Madison is really so dire, there are rational solutions. We must work toward easing/eliminating penalties for possession of controlled substances, and treat addiction as the medical and social problem that it really is. From a Civil Liberties perspective, "The War on Drugs" is a miserable failure that has eroded a wide range of our freedoms. America's drug war is only something worthy of public support if one unwisely supports criminalizing sick people. Yes, addicts often end up forced to steal in order to survive. Escalating the use of totalitarian practices that figures such as Police Chief Noble Wray and Alderman Mike Verveer prefer is not a sane way of dealing with an alleged increase in "Street Crime." It's all too clear our society no longer extends the presumption of innocence to its citizenry, and hasn't for a LONG time, if it ever DID. As for Marijuana, just LEGALIZE IT!