DRUG WAR ORPHANS JUST COLLATERAL DAMAGE?

President Bush recently nominated John Walters as chief of the White House
Office of National Drug Control Policy. Mr. Walters has made the statement
that "strict law enforcement is essential to keep users off the streets and
to shame them into seeking treatment."

Mr. Walters has also defended the records of former Presidents Reagan and
Bush, saying their advances in the drug fight were reversed by what Mr.
Walters has called the Clinton administration's "halfhearted" efforts in
the war on drugs.

I'm not sure what his definition of "halfhearted efforts" is. Perhaps Mr.
Walters thinks more citizens should have been incarcerated? The United
States now leads the world at incarcerating its citizens, passing the 2
million mark thanks in part to mandatory sentencing drug laws that targeted
first-time nonviolent drug offenders. Maybe Mr. Walters thinks there should
have been more no-knock home invasions (drug raids).

One can only guess what our new drug czar has in store to demonstrate what
a "wholehearted" effort might look like.

Locking up more citizens to shame them into seeking treatment sounds like a
modern-day witch hunt. Locking up more people will create more drug war
orphans ­ at last count there were roughly 2.5 million kids with one or
both parents locked up in a county, state or federal facility.

Maybe President Bush did not have these children in mind when he said, "No
child will be left behind." I guess these kids are just "collateral damage"
on the war on some drugs.

JIMMY GREEN, Houston