OBESITY A FAR GREATER CAUSE FOR CONCERN

Thank you for publishing the interview with "drug czar" John P.
Walters ("Takes five," June 4). It exposed the level of hypocrisy and
deception that our national drug control policy has stooped to.

Walters' response to the criticism that random student drug testing is
a violation of civil rights and the right to privacy was pathetic:
"It's about keeping people healthy. . . . Drug abuse in the United
States is a pediatric-onset disease. Why not use a public health tool
- - screening - as we do with so many other childhood diseases, and
prevent the onset before they go down the path of destruction?"

If Walters is so concerned about the health of our children, then why
not randomly pump their stomachs to see how much junk food they are
eating? Obesity is truly a "pediatric-onset disease" that negatively
affects the nation's health much more dramatically than drug abuse.
Why don't we demand that people subject themselves to random screening
of their diets?

I'm tired of subsidizing the health care costs of food-abusing fat
Americans. We need to stop these overeaters before they go down the
path of destruction.

Paul Mozina

Milwaukee