TREAT DOPE LESS HARSHLY

Regarding the Dec. 3 news story "Afghanistan Breaks Records for Opium
Production": The Post reported that "after the overthrow of the
Taliban government by U.S. forces . . . the Bush administration said
that keeping a lid on production was among its highest priorities."
And yet the flow of opium, nearly eliminated by the Taliban just a
few years ago, is greater than ever. If this defines American
effectiveness in pursuing one of the country's "highest priorities,"
one can only imagine what our record looks like with respect to other goals.

Our failure in Afghanistan has made billions of dollars available to
terrorists while fueling opiate addiction (and the closely related
spread of HIV-AIDS) in the United States, the nations of the former
Soviet Union and other countries worldwide.

The only way to protect ourselves and others is to rethink the
zero-tolerance ideology we've clung to for decades, which guarantees
the bad guys profits with which to carry out their stated intention
to destroy us. Nobody thinks a change in course would be easy, but it
seems irresponsible not to discuss one.

ROBERT G. NEWMAN

Director Baron Edmond de Rothschild Chemical Dependency Institute of
Beth Israel Medical Center

New York