WHAT ELSE HAS BEEN STAGED?

I'm sure we're all grateful that the president's speech writers decided to show how widespread drug trafficking, rather than murder, was in our nation's capital {"Drug Buy Set Up for Bush Speech: DEA Lured Seller to Lafayette Park," front page, Sept. 22} . That story raises the issue of how many more of the drug-related stories spread by the government are staged.

Are the reports of drug use in suburban and rural areas real or is the Drug Enforcement Administration luring traffickers out of their normal environs? Are drug runners really trafficking in assault rifles or just filling undercover government purchase orders? With the FBI and the Department of Justice statistics reporting crime generally stable or down during the 1980s and surveys showing drug use down, is there really a widespread drug and drug crime problem in this country, or have the right wingers finally figured out a way to dupe the media -- and the public -- into supporting their longstanding opposition to the Fourth Amendment (calling for massive searches, drug testing, shooting down planes, etc.) and the First Amendment (with government-sanctioned "voluntary" curbs on media glamorization of drugs and violence)?

THEODORE H. FIDDLEMAN Arlington

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