War on Drugs

* Re “Rumsfeld Tells Senators His Views on Drug War,” Jan. 12: Secretary of Defense-designate Donald Rumsfeld hits the target by pointing out that we can only win this “drug war” by working on the demand instead of the supply side.

Just picture a poor peasant in the Andes etching out a subsistence living at an altitude often exceeding the peak of the Mammoth Mountain. He is now offered a chance to make a sum exceeding his potential lifetime earnings. Aside from the fact that he has little chance of getting caught, this also poses no ethical concern for him, since chewing coca leaves or drinking a tea brewed from them is as natural to him as a Starbucks brew is to us.

I strongly believe that the major reason why we have not been able to even dent the illegal drug trade is that we have been fighting the wrong parties all along. The recent passage of an initiative to offer treatment instead of jail time to drug offenders is a snail’s step in the right direction. What is urgently needed is finding less harmful or completely harmless substitutes to treat these addictions. We must open our eyes and start to view most drug addiction as a biochemical or genetic defect instead of simply a character deficiency or moral degradation.

JOHN T. CHIU MD

Newport Beach