DEBATE OVER DRUG LAWS

I am astonished at the abundance of not-so-common sense propounded by
strangest of bedfellows Arianna Huffington ("This Is Two-Tiered
Justice") and Robert Scheer ('A Whole Lot of Us Need to Come Clean")
on your Aug. 24 Commentary page. Our present system of zero tolerance
"justice" on the issue of drugs makes learning from one's mistakes
impossible, punishes honesty and precludes second chances. Until we
recognize substance abuse of any kind--legal or illegal--as being a
fundamentally medical issue and not a criminal concept, we will
continue to pay the price by jailing an ever-increasing percentage of
the populace and by keeping ourselves in the dark closet of ignorance.
Presidential hopeful George W. Bush would do well to learn something
from President Clinton's obvious mistakes of the past, namely, to own
up to his own past behaviors and speak truthfully of whatever lessons
he may have learned. But by following the path he is on, including
foolish denials, evasions and half-truths, he forfeits whatever higher
moral ground he claims on the issue of alcohol and drugs.

That he is incapable of telling the truth tells us a lot.

David Temianka
Los Angeles

Bravo to Scheer for exposing the hypocrisy of American drug
laws. Before Bush, any question about drugs was just an opportunity
for the Republicans to demagogue.

Anyone who suggested the current drug laws are not working was tarred
with the "soft on crime" or the "you want kids to have access to
drugs?" brush.

Now that a Republican stands accused maybe we can get down to the
important questions of what it is we're trying to accomplish with drug
laws and whether we're succeeding. To my mind, drug laws only benefit
criminals and those (the alcohol and tobacco industries) that don't
want the competition. I wonder if they've been paying the Republicans
all this time to make sure drugs stay illegal?

Eric Spencer Lee
Pasadena