OUR EXPLODING DRUG LAWS

Earlier this year, a methamphetamine lab exploded in a backyard shed
in Iowa Park, a town just west of Wichita Falls. Instances of this
type of explosion are on the rise in areas like North Texas, where
meth labs have become increasingly common: Amateur speed cooks
handling flammable substances will light a cigarette, or a
thermostat-controlled heater will turn on, and suddenly the place is
aflame. In the case of the Iowa Park explosion, the 20-year-old man
who'd apparently been manufacturing meth inside the shed was badly
hurt, with second and third degree burns over 50 percent of his body.
Two hours passed before he was taken to the hospital, while his father
attempted to clean up the lab. Asked by the Iowa Park police why he
hadn't called an ambulance right away, the father replied that "he
didn't want his boy in trouble."

The father's actions outraged many in the community. "What kind of
father in his right mind would allow his son to suffer for that long
with critical burns without seeking immediate medical attention?"
asked one law enforcement official was quoted in the Iowa Park Leader.
But was hardly the first time that medical attention has been delayed
or denied because someone is afraid of getting caught with drugs.

As Judge James P. Gray author of Why Our Drug laws Have Failed and
What We Can Do About It, noted during a recent speech in Austin, Len
Bias, the young basketball star who died in 1986 of a cocaine
overdose, was on his third convulsion before his friends took him to
the hospital.

More recently, many of the Plano teenagers who died of heroin
overdoses a few years ago might have lived had their friends sought
medical attention for them earlier.

Rather than chastise the individuals involved, perhaps it is time to
question the climate of fear in which these incidents took place.

Gray, a Republican, is a California Superior Court judge and a former
federal prosecutor; he has been an outspoken critic of U.S. drug
policy for the past nine years.

When it comes to drug laws, Americans should "realize we have
options," he said. "On one side, the most radical thing we could do is
legalization.... At the other end of the spectrum is zero-tolerance.
But we have viable options in between these two radical extremes."
Medical clinics that supply drugs to addicts have helped reduce crime
in Switzerland. Decriminalization has worked in Holland. In this
country; Gray said, we should "legitimize the discussion, and
acknowledge that just because we have this discussion does not mean we
condone drug use or abuse."

There is growing sentiment around the country that this discussion is
overdue, but that sentiment has not made inroads at the White House.
In another throwback to his father's administration, President Bush
has chosen John P. Walters, an old-school drug warrior who was William
J. Bennett's chief deputy, to serve as drug czar.

While researching the story on North Texas meth labs that appears in
this issue, I became all the more convinced that our drug policies
must change.

Methamphetamine addiction is a serious public health problem, but it
has mostly been left to police and the courts to deal with it. The
phenomenon is hardly unique to North Texas or to methamphetamine. In
the war on drugs, helping drug addicts remains a secondary aim. Is
this so different from the father who waits to take his son to the
hospital until he has cleaned up the lab?