Your edirotiral decries that under Clinton the federal government’s efforts to wage a war on drugs have slowed some (“General Clinton, Losing the Drug War,” May 13). You also note that since 1992, drug use — especially among teens — is up.
Just where in the COnstitution is the federal government granted police power to dictate what substances the citizenry may ingest, inhale, or inject? Another point worth considering is that since 1992 teen use of alcohol and cigarettes also rose quite sharply, strongly suggesting that Clinton’s drug policy has nothing at all to do with rising consumption of illicit substances.
Do you have any evidence that the interdiction efforts you commend can prevent, or ever have prevented, more than 10 percent of the flow of illicit drugs into this country? And why do you ignore the many reasonable voices that are publicly asking whether turf-war homicides and other drug-law- induced violent crimes ravaging our urban areas are worth what we gain from prohibition?
Mona Walsh Holland, Niles, MI
