Mandatory sentences hurt. Beneficiaries of public assistance programs who have drug and alcohol problems should be required to enter treatment as a condition of receiving benefits. In law enforcement, it's time to concentrate on making illegal drugs less available to kids and to expand the policing horizon. For teens, illegal drugs are the tip of the iceberg and at the end of the substance abuse journey. Alcohol is implicated in far more teen violence, suicide and deadly accidents than all illegal drugs.
Teens learn how to inhale on nicotine cigarettes before smoking pot.
Laws prohibiting sale of alcohol and cigarettes to minors should be toughened. Their reach should be extended to cover adults who purchase beer and cigarettes for minors and tobacco and beer companies that distribute their products to outlets that sell to minors. Much more energetic efforts should be devoted to enforcing those laws and punishing those who violate them. President Bush's statements on demand reduction, treatment and protecting our children are as refreshing as Lyndon Johnson's words on alcohol in his 1967 Message on Crime in America. That signal kicked off a revolution in how our nation viewed and confronted drunkenness.