Wrong
Man for the Job
The
case against John Walters.
resident Bush has nominated
John Walters, a former aide to William Bennett, as his drug czar. Walters
has critics, who say that he places too much emphasis on punishing drug
offenders and not enough on treatment. The outgoing drug czar, Barry McCaffrey,
has joined the criticism. Some of that criticism may be unfair —
Walters actually supports treatment, but thinks that legal sanctions are
necessary to get addicts into treatment — but the truth is bad enough.
Walters believes that the Clinton administration was insufficiently tough
on states that voted to allow medicinal marijuana. He favors the further
militarization of drug policy, even though there is little evidence that
military interdiction efforts affect drug consumption. He testified in
favor of shooting down civilian aircraft suspected of carrying drugs over
Peru — a policy that recently claimed the lives of an American missionary
and her child. Defenders of that policy might say that all wars have civilian
casualties. But if we are going to continue to wage a war for the utopian
goal of a "drug-free America," it should at least be run by someone who
is willing to take account of the war's costs. John Walters does not appear
to be that man.