NOT BAD CULTURE, BUT BAD DRUG LAWS

In Carl Strock's Aug. 2 column "Sch'dy cops: bad apples or bad
culture?" he points the blame at the police as the problem for the
ongoing scandal in the Schenectady Police Department without
mentioning the drug prohibition policies and the role they have
played in this fiasco. (Two police officers convicted and others
indicted.)

Before the war on drugs, our police weren't being seduced into
committing crimes involving drugs. Similar problems with police
corruption plagued the nation in the 1920s and '30s with alcohol
Prohibition. Our drug policies have intoxicated the police with a
sense of power that corrupts the moral fabric in which they operate
in our communities.

This incident isn't the first time illicit drugs have turned good
cops into bad apples and it won't be the last. The notion of having a
"drug-free America" is a farce. Drugs are here to stay. The best this
country can do is find a way to co-exist with drugs in a way that is
least harmful to everyone involved.

We have the strictest laws in the country, which were supposed to
serve as a deterrent to "using." All that Draconian approach has
gotten us is a prison population that's exploding out of control,
with 25 percent of inmates doing time for drug charges. None of these
crimes is violent. No one was assaulted. No one's property was
destroyed. And the law hasn't succeeded in stopping people from
getting high.

This latest incident involving the Schenectady police is just another
symptom in the failure of the war on drugs. I was surprised Mr.
Strock didn't see the connection.

WILLIAM AIKEN
Albany