'TRAFFIC'- NATION RETHINKS THE 'WAR ON DRUGS'

Hollywood, medical research and a group of new lawmakers seem to be
combining to make official Washington rethink the nation's "War on
Drugs."

For years, government has fought the war on illegal drugs with a
steely focus on the supply: destroying crops, intercepting shipments,
jailing smugglers, arresting dealers. And for years, Congress wasn't
swayed by critics like Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) and Rep. Jim
Ramstad, who argued that equal effort be focused on demand --
including drug and alcohol treatment.

"Our priorities have been misplaced as a nation, when we're spending
only 16% of our funding on treatment," argues Ramstad, a Republican
from Minnesota, and himself a recovering alcoholic. "That's not working."

But in the past few months, treatment advocates are seeing the
pendulum swing their way. New studies on addiction have revealed the
social and economic costs. The Academy Award-winning movie "Traffic,"
along with popular TV shows like "The West Wing," are reaching a broad
public and fueling new debate over how best to address the nation's
drug problem.

Among the new faces in Washington, President Bush comes to power with
his own history of alcohol abuse, as does Sen. Mark Dayton (D-Minn.),
a recovering alcoholic. And the outgoing Clinton administration has
fueled the treatment debate, too, in ways both intentional and not.

Said Wellstone, "There's more public focus, there's more visibility,
there's more education, there's a little less stereotyping than there
used to be, so that makes it a better climate."

The president's budget included an extra $100 million for substance
abuse treatment, a 3.5% increase touted as a first step to bridging
the "treatment gap." Said Mark Weber, spokesman for the Substance
Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, "This administration
has singled out treatment as an area where they've called for
increased investments."

But Wellstone and Ramstad have bigger plans. The Minnesotans are
leading efforts in Congress to prohibit health insurers from treating
addiction differently than other diseases. They face an uphill fight
with many opponents: business groups, who fear it would raise health
care costs; citizens wary of government mandating health coverage;
traditionalists, who want to retain social ostracism of drunkenness
and drug abuse.

At a hearing last year, insurers noted that treatment is costly,
repeated stays are commonplace, and even the best programs fail as
often as they succeed.

But advocates point to a raft of studies with one conclusion:
providing treatment is less costly to states, families and society
than withholding it.

"My toughest sell is the Republican House leadership, no question
about it," Ramstad admits. "I realize Rome wasn't built in a day, but
this is a real passion with me, because I see the ravages of addiction
every single day."

Ramstad is working to enlist a powerful ally: the new president.
Ramstad has met with Bush to discuss his own alcohol problems, and
found that the former Texas governor grasps the ravages of addiction.

"He did not commit to supporting any legislation, I must make that
clear," Ramstad said. But, he added, "His own personal experiences
with alcohol abuse have made him sensitive to the problem there's
nothing like personal experience with addiction to become a believer
in treatment and recovery."

In Congress, the first battle involving treatment may arise over U.S.
funding for the drug war in Colombia. Last year, Wellstone and Ramstad
were soundly defeated when they tried to take drug-eradication money
for Colombia and redirect it to better treatment in this country.

"Part of the way people viewed the vote on Plan Colombia was you had
to show you were tough on drugs," Wellstone said. He also thinks some
senators were attracted to "high-tech solutions; they're less
complicated, so we'll do interdiction on the high seas, and we'll do
aerial spraying, and it just seems easier to people."

Except they're not enough. That's what Colombian President Andres
Pastrana said recently when he visited Washington. He said that
helicopters and aerial spraying in his country must also be
accompanied by curbing demand in this country.

Wellstone plans soon to make a second trip to Colombia. He hopes to
shed light on human rights abuses in the South American nation, but
also, to question the U.S. focus on the drug supply, instead of also
looking at demand.

He'll have a surprising ally: the movie "Traffic," a multilayered look
at the fallout of the drug war. The New York Times said in a recent
editorial: "It is rare for a Hollywood movie to stimulate meaningful
debate about social policy, but that has been the case with 'Traffic.'
With its disturbing images of middle-class teenage addiction,
outgunned American counter-narcotics agents and corrupt Mexican drug
officials, the movie has touched a nerve at a time of flux in the
nation's decades-long campaign against illicit drugs."

Former President Clinton, in his final month in office, signed an
executive order that gave federal workers parity for addiction-related
treatment. Inadvertently, he also drew a real-world parallel to the
movie "Traffic" with his controversial pardon of convicted drug
trafficker Carlos Vignali, who was freed thanks to the efforts of
prominent religious and civic leaders, including the brother of first
lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Clinton's drug czar, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, is also now advocating
treatment as the best way to address the drug problem, and is
promoting the Wellstone and Ramstad bill. Ramstad would have liked the
help last year.

"We got lip service from President Clinton," Ramstad groused. " Every
time it was time to move the bill, we couldn't get a letter of support
from the administration. So we've just decided to wait for the new
administration."

Together, the landscape is a welcome change for treatment advocates.
Said Jane Nakken, an executive vice president at the Hazelden
Foundation, "The awareness is a wonderful step, and we're seeing that
all over the place."