FAILED DRUG WAR

The Feb. 24 article "Doctors who deal, not heal, targeted" tells us the
unprecedented prosecution of Dr. James Graves for manslaughter is not an
isolated occurrence, but coincides with similar actions against a number of
doctors around the nation. Obviously, bureaucrats within the
drug-enforcement apparatus have contrived a "drug sweep" against doctors
for propaganda effect.

Intimidating doctors might appear to be the objective, but the real purpose
is to distract public attention away from the larger issue of the failure
of the drug war, to be narrowly refocused on prescription drug abuse. Here,
history shows there is likely success, for which credit can be claimed.

Faced with rising public skepticism about the war on drugs and outcry over
the mass incarceration of the non-white underclass, drug apparatchiks have
sidestepped by staging sensational show trials of a few affluent white
doctors. State medical boards could have addressed these cases with far
less expense and fanfare.

The prescribing abuses of Dr. Graves and others pale beside the abuse of
authority by narcotics functionaries. While claiming to act in the public
interest, these feckless parasites are primarily concerned with protecting
their public image, funding and power.

Mett Ausley, MD

Lake Waccamaw, N.C.