Virginia-Pilot, Norfolk, Virginia (version unedited by newspaper staff)

Dear Editor: A recent column in the Pilot written by the Heritage Foundation asserts that Libertarians are dead wrong on the claim that the pointless drug war at home helps finance terrorism overseas.  It is the social conservatives who are dead wrong on this issue. If all of the U.S. drug laws were abolished today, the murderous gangs who run the world-wide drug trade would be out of business by sometime tomorrow.  The hometown criminals would be out of a job quick too.  Like Al Capone in the days of alcohol prohibition, today's gangsters still reap huge profits on laws that should never have been passed in the first place.  Albeit terrorist nations like the Taliban's Afghanistan could still oppress their citizens in countless ways even if greater freedom prevailed here, the market price of poppy with a sensible drug policy would not generate the millions in profits that fueled the Taliban and al-Qaeda.  Nothing said in the Heritage Foundation column could reasonably lead to any other conclusion.  Social conservatives' real fear is that someone, somewhere is certain to pursue hedonistic choices to their destruction.  From the "conservative" viewpoint, there is no good reason not to ban drugs (and alcohol for that matter) and gambling and sexual acts and many other sins.  Conservatives push to outlaw personal responsibility when it comes to intoxication and so much more. Libertarians prefer to let people lead their own lives in every way they choose to.  We trust in freedom and in accepting the consequences of one's own choices.  The liberals will take your money.  The conservatives will make your personal decisions for you and take your money.  Libertarians allow you to keep your money and your personal freedom, too.

Stephen Merrill, LIBERTARIAN PARTY OF VIRGINIA