FACE IT: DRUG WAR A FLOP

Kudos to columnist Jan Jarboe Russell for telling it like it is
("America's drug czar and latest strategy are 'highly' deluded," June
30).

It's time Washington woke up to the fact that addressing the nation's
drug problem as a moral or criminal issue is misguided and hopeless.
Drug abuse is a social and medical problem that all the righteous
indignation of John P. Walters or other politicians will never cure.

Hundreds of thousands of arrests and incarcerations financed by tax
dollars have only increased the value of drugs and provided more
incentive to drug lords to increase their market share - by any
means necessary.

Drug interdiction only distracts law enforcement from stopping real
crimes, such as the terrorism Walters now seeks to gain from
politically.

Drew M. Loewe