FALSE LINK TO ABUSE

Drug czar John Walters would have us believe 80 percent of drug users abuse
their children. This is, of course, untrue. The figure Walters uses in The
News' Sept. 13 interview means that 80 percent of the people who have their
children removed by a government child protective services agency use
illegal drugs.

But Walters' figure is off by 30 percent, according to the latest figure
available from the Child Welfare League of America, and that is when we
include alcohol. In addition, when one considers that many children are
removed from the home not because of actual child abuse but because a
parent uses some illegal drug, including cannabis, you begin to see the
real picture behind this number.

The government has "cooked the books" by taking children from their parents
and holding them for the ransom of ending all illegal drug use. Of course,
Walters believes this strategy is fine and dandy because, he reasons, any
parent who uses illegal drugs is a child abuser. Strangely, he does not
hold this same standard for parents who drink alcohol.

Daniel D. Butterworth

Lubbock, Texas