RETHINKING DRUG WAR

New Head Of DEA Good Choice At Time Of Re-Examination

The high esteem in which former Rep. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas is held by
his colleagues was demonstrated by the 98-1 Senate vote confirming him as
the new director of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Even more telling was the fact that Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the
senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee and an ardent opponent of
the impeachment of President Clinton, appeared at the Senate Judiciary
Committee hearing to praise Hutchinson, who had been one of the Republican
House managers presenting the case against Clinton to the full Senate.

In his 4 1/2 years in the House, Hutchinson earned an estimable reputation
as a thoughtful conservative and as a fair-minded advocate.

Hutchinson will need all his skills in his new job, for the nation is
clearly about to embark on a long-overdue debate on the "war on drugs."

The DEA is primarily a law-enforcement agency. John Walters, Bush's choice
to head the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, has been in
limbo, awaiting a confirmation hearing since May. Many of the same
Democrats who welcomed Hutchinson's nomination have argued that Walters'
hard-line approach, emphasizing interdiction and incarceration over
education and treatment, makes him the wrong choice for "drug czar."

During the last three decades, the United States has invested billions in
fighting the scourge of drugs, and more and more serious people are
questioning its effectiveness.

The critics range from conservatives such as Bill Buckley and New Mexico
Gov. Gary Johnson to an array of liberals, and they are having an impact on
public opinion.

A Pew Research Center survey last February found that three out of four
Americans believe "we are losing the drug war," and by a margin of 52
percent to 35 percent they said drug use "should be treated as a disease,
not a crime."

In a recent issue of the American Prospect magazine, California journalist
Peter Schrag pointed to the growing trend in the states, where initiatives
allowing medical use of marijuana or mandating treatment rather than jail
for drug users have been winning public majorities.

Hutchinson was dodgy in his confirmation hearing on the question of sending
federal agents out to arrest doctors who prescribe marijuana as a pain- and
nausea-relieving agent for cancer patients and other seriously ill people,
as eight states now allow.

When Hutchinson was asked if he would use the authority, he said it was
something on which he needed to confer with the attorney general.

But Hutchinson also applauded a bipartisan bill, crafted by Sen. Patrick
Leahy of Vermont and the Judiciary Committee's ranking Republican, Sen.
Orrin Hatch of Utah, to expand funding of drug treatment programs,
especially for prisoners and youths, and to increase the number of drug
courts, where judges can order nonviolent drug offenders to undergo
treatment and continuing tests.

Hutchinson took over his DEA duties last week at the same time the
Department of Justice bragged that more people than ever are in federal
prison on drug charges and are serving longer sentences. This raises
obvious questions about the priorities of federal drug enforcement agents
and prosecutors.

The whole "war on drugs" cries out for re-examination.