RABBI'S SON SEEKS TRUCE IN AMERICA'S WAR ON DRUGS

The drug czar of the previous Bush administration, William Bennett,
labeled him a "fringe advocate" in the Wall Street Journal. The
designated drug czar of the new Bush administration, John Walters,
almost certainly had him in mind when he warned in print against the
"myths" spread by the "therapy-only lobby."

Ethan Nadelmann, America's leading advocate of drug policy reform,
doesn't mind a bit.

"It's a good sign that they're attacking the messenger," he said in an
interview. "It reflects their concern that the drug policy reform
movement is becoming more mainstream."

Pushing for a more liberal drug policy is just what billionaire
philanthropist George Soros had in mind in 1994 when he installed Mr.
Nadelmann at the helm of the Lindesmith Center, an offshoot of Mr.
Soros' Open Society Institute. The center's goal was to counter
America's traditional "war on drugs" philosophy -- based on law
enforcement and interdiction at home and crop eradication abroad -- with
an alternative policy based on the premise that drugs are here to stay,
and that they should be dealt with as a public health problem rather
than as a criminal issue.

This puts Mr. Nadelmann and his wealthy boss on a collision course with
the incoming administration. Attorney General John Ashcroft has already
vowed to "reenergize" the war on drugs. Mr. Walters, the drug
czar-designate, is considered a classic "drug warrior," intent on
ensuring that Mr. Nadelmann's ideas remain on the sidelines. The same
can be said of Asa Hutchinson, the designated head of the Drug
Enforcement Agency (and a onetime manager of the House impeachment of
Bill Clinton).

"I am basically pessimistic," Mr. Nadelmann said. "I expect a lot of bad
things, more drug-testing, more punitive action than treatment of drug
addicts and more involvement in Latin America."

Still, he noted that every incoming administration since 1980 has
routinely pledged to wage a war on drugs, and just as routinely
acknowledged failure to win it. As he sees it, his views have started to
gain currency and are now a topic of serious debate. And being taken
seriously is something Ethan Nadelmann has always wanted.

Drug policy wasn't Mr. Nadelmann's first career choice. He once hoped to
be a Middle East expert. Born in 1957, he was raised in an observant
Jewish home (the only Sabbath-observant kid on his block, he recalled).
His father, Rabbi Ludwig Nadelmann, had fled Nazi Germany in 1939, was
ordained at Yeshiva University and served as a leader of Jewish
Reconstructionism until his death in 1986. It was, Mr. Nadelmann
recalled, a home where ethics and obedience to the rules were not vain
words. Indeed, he said, he barely ever saw a marijuana cigarette before
he landed at McGill University in Montreal as an undergraduate in 1975.

"There, I smoked hashish like most of the students," he said. "But many
ended up behind bars just because of that. And I believed it was wrong
to lose my freedom just for smoking a joint."

He went on to Harvard University for graduate studies in political
science, intent on a career in Middle East policy. But he quickly
realized that to become a player in that overcrowded field, he would
have to improve his Hebrew and learn Arabic. And he suspected that being
a Jew would bar him from the top policy-making circles.

So, he turned his back on the Middle East and set his sights on
uncharted territory: drug policy.

"I was always fascinated by drugs-and-crime stories," said Mr.
Nadelmann, a slender, red-haired, bearded and balding man with a
youthful smile. "In the field of international affairs, no one cared
about drug trafficking. It was an appealing, virgin territory."

It was also, he said, an issue that appealed to his Jewish upbringing,
which led him to a career pursuing social justice.

"I think each society needs its bogeyman -- Jews, women, gays,
foreigners," he said. "Today, the drug addicts are America's bogeymen.
Our drug policy today amounts to the persecution of a minority."

He quickly chose sides. America's war on drugs, with its "zero
tolerance" policy and "Just Say No" education motto, would lead nowhere,
he decided. He began researching international drug policies. In 1988 he
managed, after a few failed attempts, to publish an article in Foreign
Affairs calling for the legalization of marijuana. From then on, he
became a regular in the media.

In the summer of 1992 he received an unexpected phone call from Mr.
Soros. The billionaire currency trader and liberal philanthropist wanted
to have lunch.

"We had a long talk and we agreed on many things," Mr. Nadelmann said.
In essence, they cut a deal: Mr. Soros would provide the money, and Mr.
Nadelmann the brains to set up a think tank geared toward pushing drug
policy reform into the mainstream. The Lindesmith Center -- named for
sociologist Alfred Lindesmith, who opposed drug prohibition as early as
the 1930s -- was launched in 1994, with funding from Mr. Soros to the
tune of $4 to $5 million a year. Last July the center merged with the
Drug Policy Foundation, the nation's largest membership-based drug
policy reform organization, and is now called the Lindesmith Center-Drug
Policy Foundation. "We're looking for a sexier name," Mr. Nadelmann said
with a laugh.

Mr. Nadelmann sees drug-law reform as an urgent matter of social
justice. The hard-line approach is putting hundreds of thousands of
non-violent drug offenders -- most of them blacks and Latinos -- behind
bars with harsh sentences, he said. An estimated 58% of federal
prisoners are drug offenders. In Mr. Nadelmann's view, the violence
often associated with drugs is a result of their illegality. He drew
comparisons to the Prohibition Era of the 1920s and 1930s, when a
constitutional amendment banning alcohol drove liquor sales underground
and led to an explosive growth in organized crime.

"Let's stop pretending we want a drug-free society!" Mr. Nadelmann
declared, waving his arms for emphasis. "Drugs are here to stay. Instead
of waging a lost war and brandishing prohibition as the solution, we
need to focus on a harm-reduction approach and helping drug users and
addicts getting their lives together."

By harm reduction, he means treatment. Two-thirds of the government's
$19.2 billion annual drug budget is spent for interdiction and
enforcement. Estimates are that nearly one-half of addicts needing
treatment can't get it for lack of funds.

He also wants job training, literacy courses and housing assistance for
addicts, whether or not they discontinue drug use.

On the legal front, Mr. Nadelmann advocates legalizing marijuana. He is
evasive about cocaine and heroin. "We don't have a position on that," he
said. "There are huge fears associated with this possibility," he added,
acknowledging that selling crack in corner drugstores might not go down
well with most Americans.

Overall, however, he sees reasons for encouragement. A recent survey by
the Pew Center for the People and the Press showed that 74% of Americans
believe the drug war has failed. He sees a growing realization, reaching
as far as the White House, that America's policy on drugs must begin to
address Americans' taste for drugs.

Last month, at a ceremony announcing Mr. Walters' nomination, Mr. Bush
vowed that his "administration will focus unprecedented attention on the
demand side of this problem.... We recognize that the most important
work to reduce use is done in America's living rooms, in churches, in
synagogues and mosques, in the workplace and in our neighborhoods."

During his campaign, Mr. Bush also pledged to invest $1 billion in drug
treatment and $500 million in community-based prevention programs over
five years. Moreover, the Clinton administration's $1.3 billion,
two-year aid package aimed at reducing the production of cocaine in
Colombia has come under growing fire in the media and in Congress. In
addition to concerns over human rights abuses by Colombian paramilitary
groups, critics claim the plan will merely prompt drug producers to
switch to a neighboring country, as they did in the mid-1990s when they
left Peru and Bolivia for Colombia. Mr. Nadelmann calls it the
"push-down/pop-up" factor. As a result, the Bush administration proposed
two weeks ago an additional $882 million package, one-half of which is
for seven neighboring countries.

Winning greater understanding from the White House is not Mr.
Nadelmann's only remaining hurdle. He's also got to explain what he does
to his mother. "She's proud of me because she sees my name in the
paper," he said. "And because more and more people are agreeing with
me." But, the truth is, "she doesn't really understand everything I
stand for."