Letter of the day: Ramstad is the right person to be Obama's drug czar

Criticisms of Jim Ramstad for drug czar are unwarranted. He's dinged for opposing needle exchange and medical marijuana, but there are far more critical substance abuse issues facing the nation. Regarding needle exchange, it's true that there's good science supporting the practice, so hopefully he will change his views. But needle exchange will never be the solution to the problem. On medical marijuana, the science is very mixed, with no medical protocols that help more than harm yet conceived. Worse, the Drug Policy Alliance, which pushes medical marijuana and also criticizes Ramstad, is in the hypocritical position of advocating both for recreational marijuana and medical marijuana. Nobody seems to notice the glaring and suspicious contradiction there. Most important about Ramstad is that he is a strong advocate for demand reduction. And he appears to support prevention as well. We desperately need real parity in insurance coverage for treatment, and we need a national sensibility to support treatment and prevention. A culture of prevention supports the addict in treatment and aftercare, and makes the embrace of treatment more likely. Ramstad also understands the importance of prevention to solve the national crisis of underage and binge drinking. This is a problem that must be addressed. The issues of needle exchange and medicinal marijuana, which the drug normalization supporters embrace to the diminution of all others, aren't anywhere near as critical as underage and binge drinking in terms of the threat to life, safety and property. JIM GOGEK, LA MESA, CALIF.