Whether readers found Charles Paul Stephens' Aug. 23 guest column on failed American drug policy infuriating, unsettling, illuminating, inspiring, or all of these, his estimable work cannot be dismissed as filler for what Globe-News editorialist Dave Henry recently dubbed "the public's page for ranting and raving."

A few years ago, I attended a League of Women Voters seminar on drug policy. The panel included criminal justice professionals and representatives of the black and Hispanic communities. Concerned citizens gathered in a standing-room-only hall evidently because they considered the drug problem grave, with current policy piling on more problems than it solves effectively.

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