NEW DRUG CZAR, OLD PROBLEM

To the Editor:

Re "Bush Names a Drug Czar and Addresses Criticism" (news article, May 11):

While President Bush pays lip service to treatment and prevention, it is
clear that his main drug strategy will be to continue to punish harshly
anyone who uses substances made illegal by the government.

This strategy is doomed to fail. It has failed miserably in the last 30
years, helping virtually no one except those involved in the building and
maintenance of prisons.

When will we learn that we cannot incarcerate ourselves out of this
problem? All we will end up with is more prisoners, more broken families,
fewer rights and, perversely, a worse drug problem.

KEVIN M. HEBERT

Amherst, Mass., May 11, 2001

To the Editor:

Re "Worrisome Signals on Drugs" (editorial, May 9):

With William J. Bennett, the former federal drug czar, John P. Walters,
President Bush's choice to be drug czar, acted to create consequences for
marijuana smokers during the first President Bush's administration.

Yet anyone who has used both alcohol and marijuana knows that alcohol is
the far more dangerous drug.

Illegal drug use is the only public health problem where those directly
affected are not merely ignored but persecuted and incarcerated.

If health outcomes determined drug laws, marijuana would be legal. The
intergenerational culture war otherwise known as the drug war poses a far
greater societal threat than marijuana.

ROBERT SHARPE

Washington, May 9, 2001