Antidrug Strategy and Children
* After reading about retired Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey’s plan to build the credibility of our nation’s antidrug strategy (March 2), I question his authority and capability. His strategy is anything but credible.
McCaffrey seems to think that drug education for children should be “almost the No. 1 priority.” Educational programs for children reduce this societal problem to an individual level. Such programs put the responsibility on the children to eradicate a problem that has reached endemic proportions. If so many esteemed adults have not been successful at solving the drug problem, why would we put the onus on children?
Our nation’s drug problem reflects underlying societal issues such as poverty, racism and unemployment. Many communities lack educational, social, cultural and financial opportunities for children. Rather than trying to change the children, wouldn’t it be more effective to change their environment?
A credible antidrug strategy would address the societal issues that cultivate the problem and target its roots. Children’s role in this strategy should be as the recipients of programs that would develop opportunities and alternatives for their future.
KATY MINNIUM
Santa Monica
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