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Under the headline “Drug war leaders optimistic about drop in U.S. use” (July 6) the Sacramento Bee states, “One war appears to be going well for the United States and its allies these days: the drug war.”

Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, is quoted as saying, “We seem to have reached a point where the world drug situation has stabilized and been brought under control." While “some experts chide Costa as reading too much into small fluctuations in short-term supply and ignoring grimmer long-term forecasts . . . U.S. drug czar John Walters, the director of the White House Office of Narcotics and Drug Control Policy, shares Costa's optimism.”