BUSH'S DRUGS BOSS IS UNFIT FOR OFFICE, SAY CIVIL RIGHTS GROUPS

Special Report: George Bush's America

The man President George Bush has nominated to lead the fight against
drugs is unfit for office because of his views on race and crime,
according to civil rights and drug reform groups. The claims are
likely to lead to a clash next Tuesday when John Walters, Mr Bush's
choice as "drugs tsar" has his Senate nomination hearing.

There is concern that Mr Walters represents the reactionary wing of
the drugs debate in that he favours more frequent use of jail for
users, and increased military spending in Latin America. His
nomination hearing in front of the Senate judiciary committee on
September 11 represents the latest clash over the president's
attempts to appoint hardliners to key posts.

A coalition of civil rights and drug reform groups this week launched
a critical analysis of Mr Walters' policies, saying that they
represented a step backwards. The Coalition for Compassionate
Leadership on Drug Policy expressed concern that he appeared ignorant
of the realities of the drugs world.

"It's truly disturbing to have our nation's nominee for the top drug
policy spot be a throwback to a more intolerant and reactionary way
of thinking," said Vincent Schiraldi of the Centre on Juvenile and
Criminal Justice, one of the groups in the coalition, which advocates
a greater concentration of efforts on prevention and treatment.

At the heart of the concerns expressed about Mr Walters are remarks
he made in May when he told the Weekly Standard: "What really drives
the battle against law enforcement and punishment is not a commitment
to treatment, but the widely held view that, first, we are
imprisoning too many people for merely possessing illegal drugs;
second, drug and other criminal sentences are too long and harsh, and
third, the criminal justice system is unjustly punishing young black
men. These are among the great urban myths of our time."

The coalition says these are far from being urban myths, and that the
concern about prison numbers and race are backed up by official
statistics.

Of the 1,559,100 arrests for drug law violations in 1998, 78.8% were
for possession of drugs and more than 100,000 people were in state or
federal prison solely because of this. The average federal sentence
for a drug offence in 1997 was 78 months, more than twice the average
sentence for manslaughter (30 months).

According to the coalition, whites and blacks use drugs at equal
rates, but black men are admitted to state prisons for drug offences
at a rate that is 13.4 times that of whites, despite the fact that
seven times more whites than blacks use drugs.

A letter sent by a number of groups separate from the coalition,
asking senators to vote against Mr Walters' nomination, states: "His
views on race and crime make him unfit for a position that requires
sensitivity to racial fairness." Hilary Shelton, of the National
Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, said that the
concerns were being expressed to the Senate judiciary committee.

Mr Walters has described the current step-up of US involvement in
military operations in Colombia as "cheap and effective", and has
urged an intensification of the policy.

A White House spokeswoman described Mr Walters as a "respected and
experienced leader in drug policy. She added: "The White House is
committed to a balanced approach toward the problem of drug abuse in
the United States, with emphasis both on demand reduction and
prevention."