WALTERS WRONG FOR DRUG WAR POST

While public attitudes are changing about the war on drugs, a member of the
old guard has been nominated for drug czar. John Walters' record shows him
to be a questionable candidate to bring drug policy forward into the new
millennium.

While Americans are turning toward harm reduction approaches to drug use
and focusing more on treatment for nonviolent drug offenders, Walters
champions a criminal justice approach that promises to burst the seams of
our already overburdened prison system.

While the vast majority of Americans (73 percent, according to Gallup and
Pew Research Center polls) support making an exception to current law for
seriously ill people to have access to medical marijuana, Walters has
advocated arresting doctors and stripping them of their license for
recommending marijuana.

In a time of growing concern about racial disparities, Walters says it's an
"urban myth" that "the criminal justice system is unjustly punishing young
black men." This is despite the fact that blacks are imprisoned for drug
offenses out of all proportion to the percentage of drug abusers who are black.

Walters also supports the shoot-down policy in Peru, even though under that
policy an innocent American missionary and her child were killed not long ago.

There's a growing consensus that current approaches to the drug problem
need mending. Walters is likely to give us only more of the same misguided
policies we've been pursuing for 30 years.

I hope Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray see this and vote against
Walters' nomination.

Dennis L Weaver
Spokane, WA