RIGHT DRUG CZAR?

A year after the election of George W. Bush as president, a key Cabinet
seat remains unfilled.

The nomination of John Walters as the nation's drug czar -- director of the
White House Office of National Drug Control Policy -- has remained pending
since June. Walters' hard-line views have reportedly split the Senate. But
the Judiciary Committee voted for confirmation Thursday after heated debate.

Walters served in the drug policy office under the first President Bush. In
speeches and position papers he has amassed a reputation for "just say no"
policies that favor punishment and paramilitary solutions at the expense of
treatment and sentencing reform.

In the long, frustrating years that it has fought to lessen drug use among
its citizens, the United States has created two federal bureaucracies and
spent countless billions of dollars. The Drug Enforcement Administration,
led by Asa Hutchinson, resides within the Justice Department. The Office of
National Drug Control Policy is part of the White House. Both agencies are
led by presidential appointees.

As Congress examines the many ways in which the drug war and the war on
terrorism interlock -- starting with terrorists' reliance on selling us
drugs to finance a war against us -- it would be useful to question
historic approaches to reducing drug use. The punishment-heavy approach,
light on prevention and treatment, has been sadly ineffective. The long lag
in getting Walters confirmed indicates that some senators see a need for
something new.