DEFEAT IS NOT AN OPTION

Had Gary Johnson been commander of American military forces during World
War II, we might all be speaking German today.

That's the conclusion one draws after hearing the New Mexico governor's
remarks about the war on drugs recently.

Johnson thinks that the drug war is unwinnable. He suggests that America
wave the white flag, that it give in to the international drug cartels and
that it decriminalize drug use. "The war on drugs is a miserable failure,"
said Johnson, who confesses to past marijuana and cocaine use. "Half the
budget for law enforcement, half the budget for courts, half the budget for
prisons is drug-related."

Johnson thinks we would be better off accepting that a certain percentage
of the population will be drug-addled. "I think that we need to legalize
marijuana," he said. "We need to adapt harm-reduction strategies on all
these other drugs."

Since we have failed to beat our enemy, he reasons, let us give ground. Let
us accept that the scourge - drugs - will make slaves of additional tens of
thousands of Americans each year and that it will take so many thousands of
lives each year.

Speken se deutche?

Fortunately, President Bush does not share the view of his fellow
Republican Johnson. He has nominated anti-drug crusader John P. Walters to
head the Office of National Drug Control Policy to succeed Gen. Barry
McCaffrey.

Walters inherits the battle plan of his predecessor: to "reduce drug use
and availability by half and the consequences of drug abuse by at least 25
percent by 2007." If this goal is achieved, just 3 percent of Americans
will be using illegal drugs. That would be the lowest documented drug-use
rate in the nation's history.

It will require concerted efforts on two fronts:

1. Reduction of available drug supplies.

2. Dampening of drug demand.

Supply reduction means interdiction. And it is best to wage this battle at
the source, according to national drug control strategy:

The Andean Ridge for cocaine and heroin.

Mexico for methamphetamine, heroin and marijuana.

Southeast and South Central Asia for heroin.

Fighting side by side with our international allies, the United States can
target illegal drug cultivation and production, destroy drug-trafficking
syndicates and interdict drug shipments. At the same time, the United
States must curb domestic demand for drugs.

The reason drug trafficking flourishes is because America offers such a
lucrative market.

The best way to curb drug demand is to prevent it altogether. And the best
way to do that is to discourage kids from "experimenting" with drugs. As
McCaffrey noted, "If children reach adulthood without using illegal drugs,
alcohol or tobacco, they are unlikely to develop chemical-dependency
problems later in life."

As to the more than 14 million Americans who are current users of drugs,
their illegal conduct should be treated at least as seriously as drunk
driving. Indeed, as much as the stigma and the cost of a drunk driving rap
has curbed the numbers of alcohol-addled motorists on the nation's highways
and byways, the prospect of certain punishment in the event of a drug rap
will surely curb casual use.

The estimated 5 million hard-core drug addicts are a different matter. The
threat of arrest, of humiliation, of fines is not enough to deter them from
their deadly habit. They require medical intervention. That's why a serious
effort to substantially reduce drug demand must make drug treatment a
priority. By providing treatment on demand to any and everyone with a
serious drug problem, the government almost certainly would save more money
than it spent.

Just because America has not won the war on drugs does not mean that this
nation should surrender. We must continue to fight the scourge that
destroys the lives of so many millions of men, women and children.