Jay Paterno's (column) in last Thursday's Collegian epitomizes the mentality of those who believe the current administration is winning the war against drugs. Not so, we are losing as miserably as we have been in the last decade.

President Bush and Drug Czar William Bennett would have the American public believe that their strategy will eventually be successful, if we can only wait a little longer and spend a little more money. But the administration is fighting a war in which the only winners are politicians who get elected by riding the anti-drug bandwagon.

Why is their approach doomed to fail? For every mile of coast line that the Coast Guard makes secure, there a thousand other miles that they do not even patrol. For every international smuggler that the DEA intercepts, there are a thousand others that get through.

For every drug lord that the Columbians extradite to the United States, there are a hundred thousand others who have not been caught. There just aren't enough jails in the world.

As for legalization, there is no sense even discussing this as a practical solution to the drug problem. Even if some reform legislation were to pass both houses of Congress and survive a Bush veto, such a relaxation of drug laws would quickly become the scapegoat for any drug-related problem.

So what is the solution to the drug problem? Well, Jay, I don't profess to have all the answers either. But spouting off meaningless rhetoric like that in your (column) isn't going to accomplish anything.

Statements like "Think how much new money the government would have to pour into rehabilitation centers to help cure addicts (if drugs were legalized)," display your ignorance to what's happening today.

The government is going to have to pour more money into rehabilitation centers regardless, since use of dangerous drugs like crack cocaine and "ice" (amphetamine) is already skyrocketing despite "bold programs to fight drug abuse."

Brian Snyder said it best in his letter to the editor last Friday; "If the government truly wants to end the drug problem it would focus on the reason why drugs such as crack are used: to escape the grim and depressing existence of the inner cities where abject poverty is the rule and any sort of opportunity to escape is nonexistent."

How ironic that when former Secretary of Education Bennett was asked by the NEA to push for more federal money for education, he replied that our nation's schools were already receiving plenty of money.

Yet as drug czar, Bennett insists that we need to pour more federal money into the war on drugs to support tactics that have failed to produce any substantial results for the last 10 years.

Is this an administration that has its priorities straight?

Drugs and alcohol always have been and always will be present in American society. The war on drugs -- as defined by the Reagan/Bush administration -- can never be won.

If you don't believe me, turn off your television set and drive through any major city on the Eastern seaboard. You'll find it easier to buy a vial of crack in Philadelphia than it is to buy a bottle of beer.

The only way to abate the epidemic of dangerous drugs in this country is to reduce the overwhelming economic incentive for selling them.