FAILED DRUG POLICIES

To the editor:

Re: Editorial "Bad Combination," Jan. 2). Thanks for your astute
rebuttal of the Robert Novak column wherein he promotes continued
strict law enforcement solutions to deal with our nation's very real
problem of drug abuse.

Suggestions that the war in Afghanistan should be maintained or
escalated due to that region's primary role in opium production are
also misdirected.

In the Mideast and Muslim worlds, alcohol is not only illegal, its use
is considered a religious sin. If these countries were to mimic
America's foreign policy, they would send attack planes to bomb the
various distillers and alcohol distribution companies throughout the
U.S.

And when they did, they would be rightly condemned for overstepping
their bounds internationally. We should likewise condemn our own
federal government for forcing its failed drug policies on other
sovereign countries.

No matter how many bombs we drop on Afghan opium fields and regardless
of how many American citizens we force into prison cages, not a single
drug addict will be any closer to true recovery. And our civil
liberties will continue to diminish until the war against Americans is
ended.

Stephen Heath, Drug Policy Forum of Florida, Clearwater, Fla.