RETHINKING THE DRUG WAR

Tragedy in Peru and the appointment of a Bush administration drug czar
offer a chance to rethink strategy in the war on drugs.

Instead of a continued military assault on the supply side of the drug
trade where it's grown and processed, the time is ripe to increase
focus on America's insatiable demand for drugs.

That would shift energy, but not end efforts, to interdict the flow of
drugs from abroad, and switch to a greater emphasis on education and
treatment here at home.

Barry McCaffrey, director of the Clinton White House Office of
National Drug Control Policy, was wearily headed in that direction
after spending billions on drug interdiction.

McCaffrey's replacement is expected to be John Walter, deputy director
under the president's father. That change of leadership should be an
opportunity for a shift in direction in the war on drugs.

The U.S. spends $2.6 billion a year fighting drugs, including $731
million in the Andean region where the plane carrying an American
missionary family was shot down, killing the mother and her
7-month-old daughter.

This air war against suspected drug traffickers, in the skies over the
area where Colombia, Ecuador and Peru come together, was authorized in
1994. Peru has shot down at least 30 planes since March 1995.

Peru received $48 million in drug-fighting money from the U.S. last
year, plus another $32 million as a share of the U.S.-financed $1.3
billion Plan Colombia war on drugs.

The U.S. role involves the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence
Agency, down to subcontractors that fly the planes that hunt for
smugglers. Information is relayed to the Peruvian air force which
intercepts the planes.

How the missionary plane was alerted and warned, and U.S. protests to
Peruvian pilots against an attack, are all in dispute. Americans, by
agreement, are not part of the chain of command to make a final decision.

Money to fight drugs at the source has had a poorly-understood
consequence of binding the U.S. into local politics.

In Peru, that meant a working relationship with former president
Alberto Fujimori, who along with his chief military and intelligence
deputies, all face corruption charges. Fujimori aides are accused of
selling arms to guerrillas defending drug shipments.

In nearby Colombia, the interdiction and drug eradication programs are
a morass of political tangles in a struggling democracy and weak
economy. Rebel and paramilitary forces on the left and right are
either selling or stealing drugs, or protecting those who do.

Interdiction efforts are often brave, even heroic, but the results are
glum. The Peruvian air campaign shifted 70 percent of the drug
shipments to boats. Efforts to defoliate coca crops create political
turmoil.

"We've got to review the entire program," Secretary of State Colin
Powell said after the Peruvian air mishap.

Keeping more money closer to home for education and treatment might be
a start.

Education on socially sensitive topics such as smoking, drug use and
teen pregnancy has made measurable progress.

Tough drug laws have filled prisons, and spurred a construction boom,
but those prisons are woefully short of drug and alcohol treatment
programs.

New thinking is needed, but not at the fringes of political
possibilities, such as legalizing drugs.

Drug courts that oversee treatment and monitor progress are being
embraced by those who once assumed the best response was to lock up
drug offenders. Inequities in drug laws and sentencing are forcing
more introspection.

All the fighting and dying and political intrigue in Latin America is
largely aimed at supplying a lethal commodity to a wealthy North
American market. It's time to change the focus of the war: Reduce the
demand as a way to diminish the supply.