'INSANE' DRUG POLICY

Regarding your editorial "Gen. McCaffrey seeks an Oscar" (July 14):
McCaffreyism is threatening America's integrity. The Land of the Free
now has the highest incarceration rate in the world thanks to our
insane policy of locking up non-violent drug offenders.

Drug czar Barry McCaffrey has used our tax dollars to surreptitiously
insert government propaganda into newspapers and television sitcoms.
Now he wants to do the same with Hollywood.

All in support of a policy modeled after alcohol Prohibition, a policy
that makes it easier for children to purchase illegal drugs than beer.
Drug dealers don't ID customers for age.

McCaffrey is far more dangerous to America than drugs. Marijuana
doesn't undermine the Constitution or militarize civilian police
forces. Under McCaffrey's watch the drug war has given rise to a
prison-industrial complex that rivals the military-industrial complex
of the Cold War in terms of influencing public policy.

The blame cannot be placed on McCaffrey alone. If President Clinton
truly cared about public health he would have appointed a doctor to
head up the Office of National Drug Control Policy, not an ex-general.
Clinton got exactly what he wanted. No one can accuse him of being
soft on drugs. His willingness to turn America into a police state may
earn him tough-on-drugs credentials, but does not bode well for his
legacy or this country's future.

Robert Sharpe Students for Sensible Drug Policy George Washington
University Washington