Presidential candidate George W. Bush has refused to answer questions
about past cocaine use, saying only that he made "mistakes" when
younger. He said, "I'm going to tell people that we need to clean up
the process. I'm going to tell people that the politics of personal
destruction have got to end."

Instead, I hope that candidates such as the former president's son
and other elected officials will help heal the wounds of the war on
drugs by replacing current counterproductive and expensive prison
sentences with realistic, cost-effective treatment programs.

The resulting peace will dramatically lower the unacceptable level of
violence we see each day in the news.

Wally Bachman Via the Internet