MISPLACED PRIORITIES

Your story "Drug Czar Plays Defense" [4/23/05, p. 1233] focused
almost entirely on criticisms of White House drug czar John Walters
by the drug-war hawks like Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., while paying
little attention to other, equally valid criticisms of Walters.

Under Walters's directions, the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy--and indeed, the entire federal anti-drug
establishment--has focused almost obsessively on marijuana, an
approach that conservative columnist Deroy Murdock has called
"uniquely idiotic." Walters actually claimed in a recent Cincinnati
appearance that marijuana is "as potent as cocaine and methamphetamine."

Scientifically, that's nonsense. A review by Oxford University
researcher Leslie Iversen in the February issue of Current Opinion in
Pharmacology concludes, "Overall, by comparison with other drugs used
mainly for 'recreational' purposes, cannabis [marijuana] could be
rated a relatively safe drug." But mere facts haven't stopped
Walters's office from carpeting U.S. airwaves and newspapers with ads
designed to frighten teens and their parents about marijuana--a
campaign that has virtually ignored truly lethal drugs like meth and inhalants.

The result? According to the latest federally funded Monitoring the
Future survey of U.S. teenagers, adolescent use of marijuana declined
slightly last year, while use of truly deadly inhalants and cocaine
went up. And teens rated occasional use of marijuana as being more
dangerous than trying crack cocaine, drinking nearly every day, or
taking LSD regularly.

Amazingly, Walters called those results "good news." One can only
wonder what he thinks bad news would look like.

Bruce Mirken

Director of Communications

Marijuana Policy Project

Washington