DRUG CZAR FANTASIES

Re: For a price, anti-drug message on TV, Jan. 14.

It is not so surprising to read that the office of the drug czar in
Washington has been bribing to gain influence on the scripts of popular
television shows.

Network television programming is often delivered in doses of fiction or
fantasy stories.

In the world of the drug czar, any and all use of currently illicit drugs
is considered abuse. In the czar's world, two young people smoking a joint
together is a sure ticket down an inexorable road of doom and degradation.

Barry McCaffrey's Office of National Drug Control Policy is desperate that
we not find out the truth, which is that millions of adult Americans use
illicit substances daily and function quite nicely, thank you. Such a
revelation might lead Americans to question why the drug czar's latest
strategy is to no longer war on the American public, but instead to "treat"
them for their "illness."

Most notably, in McCaffery's fantasy world, unlike that of true life, all
marijuana use is a sign of an illness, which can be "cured" by government
approved facilities.

It is curious why your paper and others are not more openly challenging of
the fantasy approaches of one of Washington's most powerful agency heads.
Fantasies like a "drug free" America, which we may assume will still openly
deal in alcohol, tobacco and pharmaceuticals.

I would hope that the print media has not been compromised in a similar
fashion by drug office advertising.

Stephen Heath
Largo