DRUG CZAR CANNOT BE TRUSTED

There are several good reasons to get rid of the office of the "drug
czar" ("Drug czar should go," Commentary, Monday). First, the Office
of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) is a complete failure.
Advertised "messages" from the drug czar have been met with roaring
laughter from teens, at whom the ads were aimed. In fact, such
propaganda actually increased drug use among kids.

In the past 10 years, the ONDCP has spent $1.4 billion on youth
anti-pot ads. It also has spent $43 million to study their
effectiveness. When science found that kids who have seen the ONDCP
ads are more likely to smoke pot, the drug czar buried the evidence,
choosing to spend hundreds of millions more on the counterproductive
ads. Obviously, truth is not on the ONDCP menu.

One very big reason for failure is that the drug czar is bound by law
to resist any change to drug-prohibition laws, no matter what the
facts may show. Because a July 2009 Mother Jones story exposed the
legal requirement that the drug czar must always lie about legalizing
Schedule I drugs such as marijuana, it is clear no one should not
expect a single word of truth from current drug czar Gil Kerlikowske
about marijuana or any other prohibited drug. According tothe National
Drug Control Policy Reauthorization Act of 1998: "The Director ...
(12) shall ensure that no Federal funds appropriated to the Office of
National Drug Control Policy shall be expended for any study or
contract relating to the legalization (for a medical use or any other
use) of a substance listed in schedule I of section 202 of the
Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 812) and take such actions as
necessary to oppose any attempt to legalize the use of a substance (in
any form)."

So much for honesty and integrity.

RALPH GIVENS

Daly City, Calif.