THE DRUG CZAR'S SHAKY LEGACY

Gen. Barry McCaffrey is wrapping up his nearly five-year tenure as
the president's drug policy adviser with a bang. His parting shot
this summer was to mastermind and successfully lobby Congress for
approval of a $1.3 billion aid package to Colombia, most of it for
weapons to fight guerrillas involved in the drug trade.

Now there is, belatedly, some recognition in Congress that Plan
Colombia has potential for disaster. There is second-guessing about
pouring money into the Colombian military, which has been linked to
human-rights abuses. There is recognition that a military response in
Colombia will push the drug trade to neighboring nations and
destabilize them.

Plan Colombia is emblematic of McCaffrey's guns-and-bullets approach
to illicit drugs, even though it's a tactic that has not made much
headway at home and is not likely to fare any better in Colombia.

What the U.S. needs instead are innovative strategies based on
science and medicine, rather than politics and military might. That's
what the next president ought to expect from McCaffrey's successor.

McCaffrey, to his credit, has talked up the importance of treatment
and other demand-reduction strategies.

But his proposed $19.5 billion budget for 2001 continues to pump
twice as much money into law enforcement and interdiction as into
treatment and prevention.

During his tenure McCaffrey has fought even relatively modest changes
in drug policies with an inquisitorial zeal--science and facts be
damned.

A 1998 study by the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed
what many other scientists had already established: Needle-exchange
programs effectively limit transmission of the AIDS virus among
intravenous drug users, their partners and their babies, with little
risk of increased drug use.

Yet McCaffrey successfully led the charge against federal funding of
needle exchanges.

Likewise, he has battled against state initiatives to allow medicinal
uses of marijuana, again disregarding scientific studies and public
opinion.

McCaffrey's most cavalier disregard for the facts came when he
traveled to Europe in 1998, supposedly on a "fact-finding" tour of
countries with liberalized drug policies. When he returned, he
blasted the Netherlands as a nest of crime fueled by illegal drugs--a
diatribe that had no basis in fact. Yet the nation's drug czar
offered no retraction.

McCaffrey will leave his post Jan. 6. It will be important for his
successor to recognize that, yes, drug addiction is a serious
problem. But the nation needs to combat it with science, common sense
and compassion, not with empty rhetoric or the failed policies of the
past.