DRUGS AND TEENS

Your recent article "White House aims to combat teen drug use with faith"
described important issues regarding the relationship between public officials
and organized religion. However, the piece overlooked an equally important
reason why Jews, and all Americans, should be very skeptical of this effort.

Unless the program embodies a total change of direction by the Office of
National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), the effort described will extend that
office's long record of misinformation, reliance on ideology rather than
science, and contempt for the intelligence and experience of teenagers.

These and other deep flaws in our approach to teens and drugs help ensure that
this issue is always with us.

The question of how government and religious institutions should work together
is important. It's just as important to recognize that, after 30 years of the
approach taken by the ONDCP, the results are in.

Just about half of American high school graduates will have used an illegal
substance. Overall, more Americans are addicted to, dependent on, abusing and
using a wider variety of substances than ever before.

Steve Beitler

Palo Alto