WE'RE LOSING WAR ON DRUGS

Of course, we're all concerned about the meth labs in our neighborhoods,
about our kids getting hold of "adult beverages," about the easy
availability of pot, pain killers, ecstasy, crack and all the rest. But we
are not winning the war on drugs. We've committed our resources as a nation
and have failed to bring drug abuse under control.

How can this be?

Illegal drugs are only the tip of the iceberg. Just beneath the surface lies
the whole destructive mass of the American drug culture:

The powerful example of parental drug dependence.

The TV brainwashing of children to inculcate the idea of better living
through chemistry (extra-strength, long-lasting, ask your doctor).

The pushers and abusers of legal drugs who operate with little legal
supervision and almost no social sanction.

The government wanting to supply prescription drugs to everyone at little or
no cost.

We are a drug culture out of control. And we expect to fight and win a war
on drugs? This reminds me of our war on terrorism.

We are ready to send our kids overseas to stamp out the threat in
Afghanistan or Iraq or Yemen, but we haven't got the nerve to stamp it out
at home for fear of inconveniencing ourselves or getting the ACLU mad at us.

So, too, we are willing to stamp out someone else's drugs, as long as we can
continue to use and abuse our own.

Until we are willing to take a long, hard look at our drug culture and our
part in it, I am very skeptical about the effectiveness of the coercive
power of the government, or about statistics showing a decline in illegal
drug use and very dubious that we will ever achieve real victory over drug
abuse in our society.

Zip Ribar,

Long Beach

Carroll