DRUG WAR A LOSING BATTLE

Some opponents of the United States' military incursion into Vietnam voiced
their disagreement with the never formally declared war by adopting the
slogan, "War is not healthy for children and other living things." Another
quasi-war recently took the life of a child, 7-month-old Charity Bowers,
and her missionary mother Roni. The pair were traveling in a small plane
mistaken for a drug-running aircraft by Peruvian military authorities and a
CIA surveillance team. It was shot down.

The Bowerses were the latest casualties in a 15-year battle the United
States and its allies have waged against drugs and particularly against the
inflow of drugs from outside this country. The so-called war on drugs has
been part and parcel of American drug policy ever since former First Lady
Nancy Reagan first began telling us to "Just Say No."

The tab so far, $30 billion.

Much of the money has been expended to stifle the imports of cocaine from
Latin America.

But the war against drugs also is being waged in West Virginians' own
backyard. This year, the West Virginia National Guard received almost $10
million in federal money for its counterdrug initiative.

In the first half of fiscal year 2001, the National Guard -- which provides
critical support to law enforcement agencies such as the State Police, the
FBI and county sheriffs -- tallied 154 arrests and $5.7 million of illegal
drugs seized.

But the figures are as depressing as they are impressive. Marijuana remains
the state's top cash crop. West Virginia is one of the leading domestic
marijuana producers. Last year eradicated plants alone were valued at $56.3
million.

And the brows of state law enforcement officials already are furrowing as a
new wave of prescription drug abuse, most commonly associated with the
painkiller OxyContin, hits the rural East.

I don't want to denigrate the work of law enforcement officers, which is
more than commendable. But sometimes it seems like they're being set up to
fight an unwinnable war.

Despite the multi-billion dollar investment, illicit drugs continue to
enter this country, and at rates largely unabated by interdiction efforts.

The reason can be explained by principles any elementary economics student
can articulate: Supply will rise to meet demand. As long as Americans
continue to demand drugs -- and 14.8 million demanded, craved, desired,
needed, hungered after drugs in 1999, according to the Drug Enforcement
Agency -- suppliers will provide them. Marijuana will be harvested on the
hillsides of Appalachia; drug smugglers will look for new ways to avoid
customs detection.

Until there is a concerted effort at battling addiction and drug
dependency, the drugs will keep coming. Clinton-era drug czar Barry
McCaffrey had begun an initiative aimed at addiction. The Bush
administration shows little interest in fighting that fight, with the
rumored appointment of John Walters, who previously has not backed
treatment efforts, as leader of the administration's anti-drug efforts.

But until a second front is opened on the war on drugs, it likely will
remain a losing battle.