To the editor:

I like to glance at the column “On the Record” in each issue of The Great Bend Tribune, partly to keep up with “the news happenings” and partly to see the diversity of legal offenses in the town which my late mom, Gloria Riedl Marples, was born, in the year 1922. Her parents came from Olmitz — a community founded largely by settlers from Austria. As I glance down the listings in the Tribune’s column “On the Record,” I see everything ranging from ambulance-calls to failure-to-obey traffic signals to instances of illegal narcotics possession.

The United States has supposedly had a “War on Drugs” ever since the times of then-President Richard Nixon. It has been an abject failure. It is no longer an issue confined to “hippies”, but a scatterbrained three-way polarization in our Society today.

Even with drugs such as marijuana, it is no longer a binary debate of being “for” or “against”, but also vague middle-ground categories such as “exemptions for medical use.” Well, if it was universally recognized by our nation’s Health Community and Centers for Health and Wellness as a beneficial treatment, there wouldn’t be any debate: Marijuana and other drugs of contention would already be legal. Of course, there is now a fourth sub-group: fringe-groups who say that drug-suppression is a scheme by “Big Pharma” (the big Pharmaceutical Companies) to make gobs of profits on peddling alternative drugs that they make. I don’t use marijuana nor any other illegal drug, yet. I somewhat believe that “Money Talks” in governmental policy measures.

So, who to believe? I was happy to see in the news a report on Monica Juma taking her Oath-of-Office in Vienna, Austria, as the new Director-General of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). While this office may seem remote, it has implications that reach around the globe, even to Great Bend.

Marijuana isn’t the only drug seen on Great Bend streets. Cocaine, methamphetamines, fentanyl, and scads of others have been reported in “On the Record” column. It is both frightening and sickening to hear of needless deaths due to illegal possession and overdose. A good hunk of those illegal drugs come to our land from foreign countries.

America must retain its “Sovereignty” while also coordinating with global leaders, too, in tandem to get a firm handle on all drugs, at every level, legal and illegal, medicinal or recreational, to provide stringent rules of issuance and governance. It can’t be a patchwork quilt or maze of “double talk.”

I have confidence in Monica Juma making a good faith effort. She was pictured with her hand on her Holy Book, binding her pledges before God and mankind. While that is no automatic proof of compliance: it shows she is at least sincere-enough to anchor her pledges on her Honor and her Faith. I like that.

Ms. Juma was born in the year 1963 just as I was. So, she and I are both age 62. I have a feeling she knows which Policies work ... and which Policies don’t. She brings a level of expertise to the table. As soon as she took office, Ms. Juma said: In taking this oath, I am reminded that international civil service is, above all, a commitment to people. As I solemnly declared my dedication to carry out these functions with integrity, impartiality, and (in the best interests of human life). That, is a solid promise that needs fulfilling. While no single person can wave a proverbial magic-wand, I believe Ms. Juma will try her best.

If she is only partially successful, the United States will benefit; and it might put a dent in the sad, long, drug-offense listings in The Tribune’s column “On the Record.” Then, it will be a “Happy News Day” in the newsroom and in readers’ living-rooms indeed.

James A. Marples

Esbon