VICTORY IS NOT POSSIBLE

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: AWACs, Blackhawks, you name it. The results? Cocaine is
as cheap and bountiful as ever. Heroin is going gangbusters.

On the home front, pot is readily available in a smorgasbord of potent
domestic strains.

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 ... 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. 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. And many states have stopped
jailing some 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 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 zero chance of stopping coca cultivation anywhere 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.