SOME STRAIGHT TALK ON DRUGS: IT IS TIME TO GET SERIOUS

Speaking with characteristic bluntness, House Speaker Newt Gingrich raised plenty of eyebrows last week with some straight talk on America's drug problem. The nation ought to "quit playing games" on illegal drugs and either vote to legalize them or adopt penalties severe enough to get rid of them, Gingrich said. According to the speaker, those who import "commercial quantities, large quantities ... to sell them to our children" should get the death penalty, and those who purchase illegal drugs should be required to perform two days of public service a week for at least a year.

To force the question on illegal drugs, the speaker said, he "would be willing to put it on the ballot in November, either legalize it or get rid of it, but quit playing the games that enrich the evil, strengthen the violent, addict our children and make us look pathetic and helpless."

With these comments, Gingrich strengthens his status as the most interesting and provocative figure in American public life today. It isn't necessary to agree with him in this instance, let alone every particular of his agenda, to make that evaluation. It is just that the speaker has thought through most of the great issues of our time and possesses the requisite courage to speak out in consistently interesting ways.

It is doubtful that Gingrich himself believes that we should rush into legalization. But his blunt comments have helped to focus the issue. Far from being ready to legalize drugs, the public attitude is undoubtedly much closer to televised hangings in the public square, at high noon, for those who are tearing apart our communities and peddling this death to our children.