To the editor:

A remarkably silly, totally unrealistic goal - "a drug-free America by 2002" - was announced by the Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives with great fanfare at a Capitol Hill press conference on April 30, 1998. Signing a "Declaration of Commitment," Republicans House members pledged, with a straight face, to achieve this impossible goal.

As we enter 2002, according to the latest government surveys, 14 million Americans are current illicit drug users, of which 11 million are simply marijuana smokers. Clearly the Republicans in Congress have failed miserably to reach their announced goal.

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