GEORGE W. WILL CRACK DOWN ON DRUGS, TOO

Re Mr. Bush, sex, drugs and media (Aug. 22) by Dalton Camp

I don't really know much about George W. Bush, possibly the next president
of the United States of America, but I have a sneaking suspicion that if he
were to be president, he could only follow up on the
war-on-(some)-drugs-mongering of past presidents.

Successive presidents, from president Ronald Regan (who never really had to
answer questions about the drugs-weapons-money finagle of Iran-Contra), to
George Bush (whose invasion of Panama was predicated on capturing a drug
trafficker the CIA once fully collaborated with), to Bill Clinton (who
personally admitted to the curious act of smoking but not inhaling), the
United States has escalated the drug war each term.

Reagan re-initiated the present War on Drugs, Bush escalated it, and Clinton
ran with it -- each imprisoning more non-violent drug offenders than the former.

With all having some connection to drugs in their lives, their insistence on
waging a war on their own citizens, mainly visible minorities and/or the
poor, strikes me as at the very least, harshly hypocritical, and at most,
guilty of war crimes.

One thing seems clear though -- if you're a politician, you can raise the
penalties for using drugs as much as you like, even if you're guilty of
using the same drugs yourself.

For this reason, George W. Bush doesn't need to worry about the eventual
outcome of this particular debate.