WHITE HOUSE THAT DIDN'T SHOOT STRAIGHT

Re "White House That Didn't Shoot Straight" (Editorial, Oct. 9):

As your editorial noted, it is appalling that research shows the
White House anti-drug ad campaign to have been ineffective at best
and counterproductive at worst. Far worse is the fact that the White
House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) deliberately hid
the evaluation showing the program's failure from both the public and Congress.

On Oct. 7 the National Journal reported: "Westat released the results
to the White House office in 2004. But the report went no further for
a year and a half, until the Government Accountability Office
demanded its release in August 2006. According to John Carnevale, the
former director of budget and planning for the ONDCP, the office did
not like the report's conclusions and chose to sit on it -- even
though Congress had appropriated $1.2 billion between 1998 and 2004
for the ONDCP's media campaign, according to GAO data."

Every official responsible for this fiasco should be fired
immediately. Failing that, Congress should cut off their funding without delay.

Bruce Mirken

Director of Communications

Marijuana Policy Project

Washington, D.C.