Pubdate: Mon, 24 Sep 2001
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Section: News, Page A15
Website: http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/
Address: 1101 Baxter Rd.,Ottawa, Ontario, K2C 3M4
Contact: letters@thecitizen.southam.ca
Copyright: 2001 The Ottawa Citizen
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THOUGHTS ON TERROR

From a speech by Arnold Trebach, then-president of the U.S.-based Drug Policy Foundation, to a criminology conference in Jerusalem in 1996:

What is not generally recognized is that the skills and personnel most successful in enforcing prohibition are also the most effective in curbing terrorism.

The greatest successes of the American Drug Enforcement Administration have come from good intelligence, long-range planning and prediction, and undercover work. These are the same skills that other agents have used to penetrate terror networks.

It goes without saying that society is at greater risk from bombs than drugs.

All of us would be infinitely safer if the courageous efforts of anti-drug agents in the U.S., Israel and other countries were focused on terrorists aimed at blowing up airliners and skyscrapers than at drug traffickers seeking to sell the passengers and office dwellers cocaine and marijuana.