Survey of Attitudes Toward Drug Abuse

* So, the number of teens “expecting to use illegal drugs in the future has doubled since last year,” according to a national survey with 22% of the teenagers saying “it is likely they will use an illegal drug in the future” (Sept. 10). The survey found “a high level of tolerance by many teens, as well as their parents, toward the prevalence of drug dealing and usage.”

Well, is it any wonder? Every- body’s drug crazed! What can you expect? The thing about “drugs” is this: Once you’ve used one, you’re never the same. You’re always “addicted,” “habituated” or similarly “affected,” and no amount of denial or finger-pointing at others changes this fact. What this country has is this: 50% of the population has been adversely affected by drug use, and 25 years of abstinence will never change the fact that the drug was once used. This effect is sinister and permanent, however much the baby boomers may say that their previous drug use was “casual” and “had no long-lasting effects.” JAMES D. REAGAN

Norwalk

* As a freshman at CSUN in the early 1970s, I was approached by someone who asked me if I could find her illegal drugs. I was young, scruffy-looking and had long hair, so I looked right for the part. I was also a healthy male. The person who asked me to find drugs was a cute girl who had just transferred into my art class. She also had designs on being some sort of undercover narcotics officer. I was, apparently, to be her first “score.” I never found her any drugs, and her only evidence against me was my ardent promises that I’d keep looking if maybe we could go out for lunch sometime.

Of course, she turned me in to the police anyway. I imagine in her mind, and the mind of the campus cop who questioned me, was the idea that even if they couldn’t put me in jail, they’d at least “send me a message.” That, they did.

Since that day in 1974, I’ve seen a generation of kids go to jail, claiming (strangely enough) that they were set up by narcotics officers who enticed them into breaking the law. I have seen my country turned from the most free place in the world to a surveillance state, where you have to urinate into a jar to prove you’re moral enough to get a job. I’ve seen 40% of all the African American men in California sent to jail, while the rest of us clamor that we need to incarcerate even more. Your Sept. 11 editorial implies that it is malaise I feel, or indifference to America’s losing the war on drugs. Don’t be so easy on yourselves. What I feel is vengeance.

RICHARD WADHOLM

Sylmar

* You left out one word in your editorial: More dollars are needed to step up truthful drug education.

MARIE SALYER

Claremont