BAD CHOICE FOR DRUG CZAR

PRESIDENT BUSH'S CHOICE of John Walters to be the nation's next drug
czar is disappointing. Unless he has a huge change of heart, Mr.
Walters is likely to continue anti-drug policies that have largely
failed in the past.

The president knows Mr. Walters from the previous Bush
administration, where he was deputy director of the Office of
National Drug Control Policy. Back then, Mr. Walters favored a
hard-line approach. Those rigid get-tough tactics -- harsh prison
sentences, a military emphasis on interdiction in Latin America, and
skepticism about treatment programs -- have done little to reduce the
supply of drugs in this country.

Groups that work with addicts say illicit drugs such as heroin and
cocaine are cheaper, purer, and more available than ever. They say
the nation's prisons are full of non-violent drug offenders, and
treatment programs do not have enough spaces to meet existing need.

In the past, Mr. Walters has criticized treatment therapies. Yet many
studies have found that treatment is the best and cheapest way to
stop demand. Without demand, supply would shrink, the criminal drug
trade would be weakened, and many of the nation's 5 million chronic
drug users could be given the chance to put their lives back together.

As drug czar, Mr. Walters will oversee a budget of almost $20 billion
annually, with two-thirds of that amount currently spent on
enforcement and interdiction. Mr. Bush has said he wants to place
greater emphasis on treatment and on a more humane approach to
addiction.

That approach makes a lot of sense. And that's why his choice of Mr.
Walters is confusing and disheartening.

Billions will continue to be spent, and very little will likely change.