WHEN WILL WE REALIZE THE FUTILITY OF THE DRUG WAR?

THIS IS SOME WAR, this war on drugs. Tracked by a CIA jet, an unarmed
Cessna carrying American missionaries is shot out of the sky by a Peruvian
air force chase plane. Bullets kill Ronnie Bowers, 35, and her 7-month-old
daughter, Charity.

Oops, says Peru. Oops, says the United States. Bad mistake, folks. We're
really, really sorry. But what if the Cessna had been ferrying dopers, as
first suspected? Would the shoot-down have put even a spoon-size dent in
the mountain of cocaine that's shipped out of South America every month?

Nope. This is some war. U.S. taxpayers spend almost $2 billion annually to
fight drug smugglers in Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, and other producer
countries. We've sent troops and "trainers" and some of our fanciest toys:
ground radars, AWACs planes, Citations, Blackhawk attack helicopters, Huey
transports, you name it. The results? Cocaine is as cheap and bountiful as
ever. Heroin, made from Colombian-grown poppies, is going gangbusters.

On the home front, pot is readily available in a smorgasbord of potent
domestic strains. For clubbers, it's easier to score Ecstasy tablets than
Altoids.

The drug war has taken on an air of weary charade. Cops posing as crack
dealers lock up buyers by the vanload. Other cops posing as buyers lock up
the dealers. Next night, they go out and do it all over again. Not a week
passes in Miami without TV reporters hustling to the scene of some
"late-breaking" bust: another cargo container at the port, another rusty
freighter on the river, another grow-house in the suburbs.

It's the same old scene over and over: the seizure, the press conference,
the dope laid out for trophy display -- as if it actually amounted to
something. It doesn't.

Walk out the door, and you still can find any drug you want, anytime of the
day, without burning more than a few gallons of gas. This is true almost
everywhere in the country. Dope is still abundant not because the cops and
the feds are inept; for the most part, narcotics officers are good at what
they do. Unfortunately, the mission is utterly futile, no matter how many
tons they intercept, or how much cash they seize.

Nor has arresting people accomplished much except filling our jails and
prisons beyond capacity. Twenty years ago, about 46,000 Americans were
incarcerated for drug crimes. Today, there are 10 times as many. That
number would be impressive if it had led to a commensurate reduction in
trafficking, but it hasn't.

Still, everybody's got a piece of the action -- the DEA, the FBI, CIA,
Customs, the Coast Guard, the military, and thousands of local police
agencies. The anti-drug infrastructure is as vast as it is scattered,
bureaucracy piled upon bureaucracy. Like most wars, this one has become a
big business for both sides.

According to the Justice Department, the DEA's budget has grown from about
$75 million in 1973 to $1.55 billion last year. During that same period,
the total federal anti-drug budget mushroomed from $700 million to $17.8
billion.

By the government's own estimate, more than $185 billion in tax dollars has
been spent trying to stamp out dope over the last 27 years -- with
virtually no change in the illicit supply, or in the cost. To say the drug
war is a failure is like saying the Hindenburg was short a few fire
extinguishers.

The only hopeful news on the drug front comes from the least glamorous
approach -- education and rehabilitation. Recent surveys show that grass
and cocaine use have leveled off or declined among teenagers. Meanwhile,
many states have stopped jailing first- and second-time offenders because
it costs too much, and it doesn't deter them from using again.

Instead, special drug courts steer defendants toward treatment programs,
sobriety, and gainful employment. Attacking the demand for drugs is a slow
and frustrating process, but it's more cost-effective than chasing after
bandit suppliers, who are replaced as soon as they crash or get busted.

There's exactly zero chance of stopping coca cultivation in Colombia and
Peru as long as Americans back home are sucking down crack by the metric
ton. Yet after all these years and billions of dollars, Washington still
doesn't get it. We're still playing the star-spangled cowboy, chasing
Cessnas across the Amazon.

This is some screwed-up war.