Debate Over Drug Laws

I am astonished at the abundance of not-so-common sense propounded by strangest of bedfellows Arianna Huffington (“This Is Two-Tiered Justice”) and Robert Scheer (‘A Whole Lot of Us Need to Come Clean”) on your Aug. 24 Commentary page. Our present system of zero tolerance “justice” on the issue of drugs makes learning from one’s mistakes impossible, punishes honesty and precludes second chances.

Until we recognize substance abuse of any kind--legal or illegal--as being a fundamentally medical issue and not a criminal concept, we will continue to pay the price by jailing an ever-increasing percentage of the populace and by keeping ourselves in the dark closet of ignorance.

Presidential hopeful George W. Bush would do well to learn something from President Clinton’s obvious mistakes of the past, namely, to own up to his own past behaviors and speak truthfully of whatever lessons he may have learned. But by following the path he is on, including foolish denials, evasions and half-truths, he forfeits whatever higher moral ground he claims on the issue of alcohol and drugs. That he is incapable of telling the truth tells us a lot.

DAVID TEMIANKA

Los Angeles

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Bravo to Scheer for exposing the hypocrisy of American drug laws. Before Bush, any question about drugs was just an opportunity for the Republicans to demagogue. Anyone who suggested the current drug laws are not working was tarred with the “soft on crime” or the “you want kids to have access to drugs?” brush. Now that a Republican stands accused maybe we can get down to the important questions of what it is we’re trying to accomplish with drug laws and whether we’re succeeding.

To my mind, drug laws only benefit criminals and those (the alcohol and tobacco industries) that don’t want the competition. I wonder if they’ve been paying the Republicans all this time to make sure drugs stay illegal?

ERIC SPENCER LEE

Pasadena