Here's a bit of rare good news on both the Homeland Security and Drug War front. Insanity doesn't always reign. The feds are actually going to divert some funds from local narcotics task forces to looking for terrorists.

?Certainly the president?s focus in the aftermath of Sept. 11 is to make sure our nation is preventing attacks and protecting our citizens from terrorists,? Stanzel said. ?So the resources have been redirected to counter terrorism efforts.?

U.S. Rep. Kenny Hulshof, R-Missouri, believes it?s important to keep funding at its current level. He is among two dozen congressmen who sent a letter to members of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee urging that the Byrne funding remain intact.

?The grants make up a huge percentage? of agency budgets, he said. ?Some of these departments are quite dependent on the monies.

Dependency's a tough thing, Kenny. Maybe it's time the drug warriors got that federal monkey off their back...

?The only way we can make the case is to talk about the successes. To me it?s important to tout those successes to the appropriators. ... Otherwise, a lot of these agencies are having to contemplate turning out the lights.?

Don't contemplate it--do it. Just say no.

This reminds me another connection between the "war on drugs" and the War on Terrorism. In the past three decades, we have been sold the notion that tighter anti-money laundering (AML) regulations for banks and other financial service firms would have a real impact on the drug business. The idea was that if you could stop the drug lords from being able to spend their money, they'd lose interest in selling drugs. They have not, based on the amount of dope out there and the fact that every year it gets cheaper. Now, we've also been told that new, even tighter AML rules will cut off the financing for terrorists. Well, it didn't work in the drug war. Why is going to work now?