LEGALIZE DRUGS? JUST SAY `NO'

President Clinton's appointee for Surgeon General is at it again. Joycelyn Elders believes she has the answer to reducing the nation's crime rate -- legalize drugs.

What is she thinking?

We can't have America's top doctor prescribing the legalization of drugs to help make our streets safer. By this statement, Elders is taking the standard, liberal answer to another problem -- make it legal and the problem is solved. That's ridiculous! Furthermore, this is nothing to say about her copping out on the American public's will to fight off drugs in their neighborhoods and by getting tough on crime. These are the real answers, and we should not give up on that strategy.

In a recent appearance at the National Press Club, Dr. Elders stated: "Many times they're robbing, stealing and all of these things to get money to buy drugs. I do feel that we would markedly reduce our crime rate if drugs were legalized." She further admitted that she had no proof such a move would work.

Of course it wouldn't work. If you legalize crack, cocaine, heroin, and other addictive drugs, you're waiting for a societal disaster to get worse. This is not the idea of the American dream most of us have for this nation -- to have our children and grandchildren going through life in a daze hooked on drugs.

No, we shouldn't legalize drugs. To reduce crime -- specifically drug crimes -- we need tougher penalties on drug dealers, the death-penalty for drug kingpins, and a lot of other deterrents.

Surgeon General Elders hadn't discussed her ideas with her boss, President Clinton, before making them public. I'm glad that when the President heard her statement, he repudiated it. President Clinton, of necessity, always has a lot of fires to put out -- sometimes too many at one time. It is too bad that he has to spend so much time correcting people he has himself appointed.