DRUG POLICY CROSSROADS

PRESIDENT George W. Bush's introduction of a new drug czar with a
reputation for favoring crop eradication in the Andes over treatment in US
cities included surprising remarks from Bush about the need to "reduce
demand" by curing users of their addiction. This contradiction left
observers of the nation's drug problem wondering exactly what Bush's
intentions are. A president who is serious about expanding treatment could
reduce the toll of this scourge, whoever his top drug aide is.

Like so many Bush appointees, the new man, John P. Walters, served in the
administration of Bush's father. As top deputy to the first drug czar,
William Bennett, Walters was an architect of attempts to solve the US drug
problem by striking at the production and transportation of narcotics in
South America. Afterward, he criticized the Clinton administration for what
he saw as overemphasis on rehabilitating drug users.

But in the Rose Garden on Thursday, Bush talked about focusing
"unprecedented attention on the demand side of this problem." He said his
secretary of health and human services, Tommy Thompson, would make a
state-by-state survey of treatment resources to "most effectively close the
treatment gap in this country." As governor of Wisconsin, Thompson was
known for favoring anti addiction programs over new jails.

If resources were unlimited, there would be nothing to stop the United
States from pouring helicopters and herbicides into South America while at
the same time providing enough treatment in US communities so that no
addict has to wait to join a program. According to the Lindesmith Center in
New York, a drug-policy reform organization, national studies show that
more than half of all users seeking treatment cannot get it.

But resources are limited. Of the approximately $20 billion that the
federal government spends on drug problems each year, only about one third
goes toward treatment. Based on his record, Walters will not be an advocate
for increasing the investment in rehab, especially at the expense of the
interdiction efforts he has in the past favored.

Still, he will be serving in a Cabinet that offers broader views on this
issue than on many others. Like Thompson, Secretary of State Colin Powell
has lamented the large number of drug users in prison and Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld has called illegal drugs a demand problem, noting that if
they cannot be produced in Colombia they will be somewhere else. Bush
himself in January questioned whether long minimum sentences for first-time
drug users are the "best way to occupy jail space and/or heal people from
their disease."

If Bush doesn't give in to his tendency to stop focusing on issues after
delegating them, he might just steer US drug policy in a more effective
direction.