>Sender: >To: >X-Original-Message-ID: <03e801bf0885$14ea5f80$9acf69cf@pacbell.net> >From: "Peter McWilliams" >Subject: What Washington is smoking >Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1999 18:10:14 -0700 >X-Mozilla-Status: 8001 >X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 > > >Editors, Chicago Tribune > >Steve Chapman ended his excellent review on the failure of drug testing with >this: "Over the past decade, drug testing has been tried on a grand scale, >with no apparent success. But our leaders in Washington don't seem to care >whether this expensive and intrusive program actually does any good. Which >makes you wonder: What are they smoking?" > >The answer is arrogance. The hardest thing for arrogant people to admit is >defeat, to acknowledge they were wrong, and that their error in judgment >caused harm. The facts have gone against the drug warriors for so long that >they aren't just smoking arrogance, they're mainlining it. Yes, they are >addicted. > >For with the truth comes the inevitable questions: "You mean I've been >peeing into a cup for ten years to keep my job and it hasn't help combat >drug use at all?" Yes. "You mean my mother who died of cancer because she >couldn't keep down her chemotherapy might have found nausea relief from >medical marijuana?" Yes. "Needle exchange programs would have prevented >200,000 cases of AIDS transmission without increasing illegal drug use?" >Yes. The list is long, indeed. > >Politicians, while in office, don't want the truth to come out, because the >truth can be embarrassing. Worse, the truth can cost them votes. So, let's >all keep living a lie and we'll let the next administration handle it. And >the public, as usual, be dammed. > >Peter McWilliams >8165 Mannix Drive >Los Angeles, California 90046 >323-650-8488 >peter@mcwilliams.com > > > > > > > >================================================================ > >This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to > the mailing list . >To unsubscribe, E-mail to: