WE NEED COMMON-SENSE PLAN

If politicians are serious about keeping dangerous drugs out of the hands
of children, they're going to have to come up with a common-sense plan that
does not involve abdicating the responsibility to organized crime. While
European nations have largely abandoned the drug war in favor of
public-health alternatives, our so-called leaders are seemingly intent on
maximizing the harm associated with illicit drug use. The RAVE Act
currently making its way through Congress targets dance clubs that provide
lifesaving harm-reduction education, pill testing and water designed to
prevent ecstasy-related heatstroke, which is potentially life-threatening.
Sacrificing more children at the altar of the failed drug war is not in
America's best interest. In addition to pushing legislation that will lead
to easily preventable deaths, our government is spending millions on a
misleading anti-ecstasy campaign. Apparently, keeping the
multibillion-dollar-drug-war gravy train chugging along is more important
than protecting children from drugs.

Robert Sharpe

Arlington, Va.