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.

Dave Haans,
Toronto