DRUG CZAR CHOICE MORE OF THE SAME

President Bush declared in a Rose Garden ceremony last week that his
version of the war on drugs will include giving more attention to
addiction treatment.

Then he named a drug czar who has a public record of belittling that
approach.

That is cause for worry that the nation won't get the kind of fresh
thinking needed to confront the failures of the war on drugs.

John P. Walters is the latest of drug czars to come to the federal
position with the view that America's substance abuse problems can be
handled through incarceration and interdiction, meddling in other
country's national policies, and generally treating drug use as a
moral failing--which, granted, it is on a personal level--rather than
the public health and law enforcement crisis it is for the nation.
Even exploring the use of marijuana for medical purposes is taboo with
Walters. Haven't we been down this road before?

And doesn't this road lead to nowhere?

There are an estimated 5 million chronic users of heroin, cocaine,
crack and methamphetamine in the United States. They are the cause of
most of the social problems we have in association with drugs.

For the last two decades, the bulk of federal resources has been used
to arrest, prosecute and confine these users.

Treatment is available to only half those who need it. Walters' Office
of National Drug Control Policy oversees $19 billion in anti-drug programs.

Bush's budget proposal for fiscal 2002 seeks $1.6 billion for
treatment programs. The president's choice of Walters comes just weeks
after the administration announced it will enforce a 1998 law that
bars financial aid to students who have been convicted of even minor
drug offenses.

Bush defended Walters during a visit to an anti-drug community program
in a Washington suburb, saying Walters "understands the need to reduce
demand" through treatment.

If that is so, it's a dramatic turnabout for a man who once dismissed
shifting more money to drug treatment as "ineffectual policy."