WAR ON DRUGS IS IN NEED OF NEW STRATEGY

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 last
month as the new director of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

In his 4 years in the House, Hutchinson, a former U.S. attorney, earned an
estimable reputation as a thoughtful conservative and 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 so-called "war on
drugs." The DEA is, as the name implies, primarily a law- enforcement
agency, but 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." At least until Walters' fate is resolved,
Hutchinson is in the hot seat on Bush administration policy toward drugs.

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

A Pew Research Center survey in 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."

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. The Supreme Court held earlier this year that
the feds have that authority. When Hutchinson was asked if he would use it,
he said it was something on which he needed to confer with the attorney
general.

But Hutchinson also applauded a bipartisan bill, crafted by Leahy and the
Judiciary Committee's ranking Republican, Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, to
expand funding of drug treatment programs, especially for prisoners and youths.

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. That report showed
there were more suspects arrested in 1999 on charges involving marijuana
than for powder or crack cocaine. A higher portion of the marijuana
suspects who wound up in federal prison were simply users than was the case
with any of the hard drugs.

No one seems to know how many people are in state prisons for simple
possession of marijuana.

But in 1998, those prisons held 236,800 people convicted on drug charges 57
percent more than had been there in 1990.

The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University
estimated in 1998 that 70 percent to 85 percent of all state prison inmates
not just those convicted on drug charges need treatment, but only 13
percent of them get it.

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