Re: “King County GOP: Why resist National Guard in Seattle?” (Nov. 7, Opinion):
The op-ed by Jolie Lansdowne and Victoria Palmer begins with an abominable premise that federal officers (i.e. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement) act legally and that they are deployed to support drug enforcement.
The decades-long drug war starting in the Nixon administration wasn’t effective in reducing drug use or drug trafficking, but it cost a lot of money. The 1980s advertising campaign, “This is your brain … This is your brain on drugs,” showing an egg in a shell then an egg being fried was effective without guns, tanks and soldiers. It was a powerful commercial that targeted users and potential users.
The GOP advocates for market forces driving political, domestic and economic policy. Eliminating the drug market is a long-term project like the anti-smoking campaigns credited with substantially reducing smoking. A strong push to educate the public about the dangers of drug use, to young people especially, combined with reliable treatment and enforcement practices would be less expensive than sending the military into U.S. (blue) cities or parking aircraft carriers off the coast of Venezuela.
Scott Ketron, Renton
