SAME OLD DRUG FIGHT

Sixty years ago America fought a war that had widespread public support and
achieved the lofty goal of ending tyranny in Japan and Germany. Sadly, this
country remains deeply engaged in another war that simply soaks up scarce
tax dollars, supports foreign corruption and stuffs our prisons full of
non-violent criminals.

The war on drugs hasn't worked, and yet it has been embraced by one
beleaguered presidential administration after another. The strategy might
be understandable if there were any sign of progress toward proclaimed goals.

But where's the progress when America maintains a stunning $66 billion a
year appetite for illegal drugs and when almost 25 percent of the nation's
prison inmates are drug offenders?

In this kind of war, the best time to change tactics is when a new
president moves into the White House. George W. Bush had the chance to show
he understood his predecessors had it wrong when they relied so heavily on
aiding Columbia and other Latin American nations in battling the outlaws
who profit so handsomely from the export of illicit drugs to the United
States and other consuming nations.

But this president, with his eyes firmly fixed on the rear-view mirror, is
not one to break new ground. His idea of progress is to heed his father's
advice to "stay the course."

Thus he seems determined to not just maintain the old strategies - with a
costly emphasis on military interdiction and neglect of treatment for
addicts - but to actually augment them.

First, President Bush said he would enforce a measure that prevents drug
offenders from obtaining federal grants or loans for a college education,
dismissing the probability that these financial aids probably would do more
to restore these offenders to a productive life than any other tactic thus
far advanced.

Next, he named as drug czar hard-nosed John Walters, a doctrinaire
conservative who believes President Clinton was "too soft" on drugs.
Walters prefers the military approach over more promising treatment programs.

Even if a full-scale military assault on drug trafficking were to put some
producers out of business, the appetite for drugs and the marketplace
profits would assure continued development of new sources.

The United States has been at pains to distance itself from the recent
killing of two Americans - a 35-year-old Baptist missionary and her infant
daughter - who were aboard a private airplane stupidly shot down by
Peruvian anti-drug forces, but the tragedy might never have happened had we
not been so deeply committed to attacking the production end of the drug
cycle rather than the consumption end, where the real problem lies.

It's time for a smarter approach in Washington. Sure, some effort should be
made to fight those who grow and sell drugs, but an even greater effort
should be made to help potential users. Thanks to President Bush's lack of
vision, we may be stuck with the failed illicit-drug strategy for four more
years.