Many folks are wondering why a generation exposed to an unprecedented
barrage of anti-drug messages has nonetheless stepped up its use of alcohol
and other drugs (news article, Dec. 20). A recent comment by Gen. Barry R.
McCaffrey, the White House director of national drug policy, might give us
a hint. He said that, despite parents' own youthful drug peccadillos, their
message to youngsters should be "unambiguous: zero tolerance."

But the human use of mind-altering substances is complex and rife with
ambiguities: consider cancer patients using marijuana, junkies holding
jobs, Native Americans using sacred peyote. The lure of innocent pleasure
co-exists with the threat of addiction, the promise of spiritual
enlightenment and the urgency of relieving pain. Unambiguous drug education
denies these complexities. To succeed, drug education must deal honestly
with them.

Mr. McCaffrey and other drug warriors have tried to link teen-age drug-use
to the medical marijuana issue in California and Arizona, contending that
those initiatives compromise the zero-tolerance message. But the drug war's
ideology already contradicts the virtues of tolerance and civil liberty we
try to teach our kids.

Defaming medical marijuana by falsely linking it to adolescent indulgence
constitutes an attack on the virtue of compassion. "Just let 'em suffer" is
not a message I want taught to America's kids.

PAUL M. BISCHKE
Co-director
Drug Policy Reform Group
St. Paul