Review Dead Wrong on Drug Ads

To the Editors:

While I agree that many aspects of the Bush administration’s drug policies are both moronic and counter-intuitive, I take issue with the Review’s (2/8/02) editorial deriding the administration for running new ads during the Super Bowl that link drug use and terrorism (and other acts of violence). Supposedly “liberal” Americans (including many Obies) try to absolve themselves of personal reasonability for drug related violence by shifting all the blame for such violence to the policies of the U.S. government. However, whatever you may think about the utility and morality of the “drug war,” it is the current law of the land and when you purchase drugs you may be subsidizing the murder of innocents. If you oppose PLAN Columbia (as I do), then I urge you to lobby against it. However, that does not give you free reign to financially support the drug syndicates that have destroyed Bogotá, turning it into a city with the second-highest murder rate in the world and hundreds of thousands of street children addicted to basuco.
The Review was right to criticize the administration for only dedicating one-third of federal anti-drug monies to treatment and prevention programs. However, if linking personal drug use and acts of violence is an example of “one-sided propaganda,” then I can’t imagine what kind of prevention message the Review would support. In truth it is often the anti-drug-war advocates who are thwarting “open communication and dialogue” when they refuse to mention the role of recreational drug users in supporting the horrific violence so often connected with drug trafficking. The Review is correct; drugs are a serious issue in America. However, the problem can only be dealt with if individuals begin to take personal reasonability for their actions. That is exactly what the new ad campaign is trying to get people to do.

–Noah Heller
College senior