Boot Camps for Drug Offenders
The recent remarks of the drug czar William Bennett ranting about jail time for all casual users will have little real effect on our culture’s drug problems (“Bennett Weighs Boot Camps for Drug Offenders,” Part I, May 8).
While the war on drugs only focuses on the many different controlled substances justly or unjustly declared illegal, the new prohibition will continue to be a scatterbrained, futile effort.
Alcohol and tobacco are the real killers, enjoying free marketing, while marijuana, the safest “recreational” drug, is still classified with heroin, cocaine, and amphetamines in our present legal system.
Current laws may mean confiscation of your car, boat or plane if you have so much as a marijuana seed in an ashtray. A drunk driver, on the other hand, of a car or oil tanker has no such penalties to consider.
The key term, drugs , remains undefined and irrational. And so are our efforts to realistically control drugs.
DAVID DOVE
El Monte
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