DISHONESTY WON'T WIN WAR ON DRUGS

Barry McCaffrey is intelligent, well-intentioned and above all an optimist.
Last week at Westminster College in Fulton, the former federal drug czar
spoke many words of undeniable sense.

He told the audience that recreational drug use is not limited to young and
poor people of color. He reminded them that alcohol constitutes the most
serious substance abuse problem in the nation. He pointed out that our
children are safer from drugs and violence in schools than they are almost
anyplace else.

Then, having chalked two plus two on his rhetorical slate, McCaffrey
concluded the answer is five. Despite setbacks, he said, we're winning the
drug war! It reminded me of the upbeat updates regularly given by Gen.
William Westmoreland, Robert McNamara and others during the Vietnam War.
Just another little push, they'd say, a few more billion dollars, a few
more thousand troops, a little more toughness and perseverance - and we'll win!

That sad illusion withered and finally died after a couple of decades. This
one is still going strong, but it begins to fray and desiccate at the
edges. People are finally owning up to two plus two; ultimately, they will
realize it really does equal four.

The drug war debate rages around us every day in a dozen different ways. An
excellent illustration is Cory de Vera's article on drug use in Columbia
Public Schools, which ran in the March 21 Tribune. A local high school
counselor told de Vera that the results of a student drug use survey had
been destroyed. Then, the counselor admitted that was a lie.

"I only wanted to release information if it was used in a positive way,"
the counselor said. "To say there are so many kids out there doing drugs
goes against our social-norming goals."

Therein lies the rub: The truth is believed to send the wrong message. It's
possible to doubt the accuracy of student surveys. Some teenagers do tend
to exaggerate. It's probably safe to say 10 to 15 percent of high school
students are boozers and stoners, 30 to 40 percent are experimenters and
the rest are pretty much clean livers. It has ever been thus. And it's also
been shown that the proportion of users and abusers goes up in the
middle-age bracket. Way up.

So the best thing might be to forget the surveys and focus on the message.
Certainly, it ought to be possible to tell the truth and still portray drug
and alcohol addiction in an unflattering light.

Is it really that difficult to de-glamorize the life of a junkie? It's a
pretty pitiable existence, after all. Maybe every high school student
should watch movies like "Trainspotting" or "Traffic," which realistically
portray what happens to people who let their lives be ruled by their
dependence on drugs. Starting with "Confessions of an English Opium Eater,"
many works of fiction luridly sketch the bleak fate that awaits the addict.

But why stick to fiction? Quite a number of high school students, even here
in Columbia, have witnessed firsthand how lives are ruined by alcohol or
other drugs. Almost everyone has a friend, a relative or at least a
relative of a friend who has had to cope in some way with the tragedy of
addiction.

Here's an idea: Offer a tempting cash prize for student essays, short
stories or journals that depict substance abuse and its horrible impact on
the lives of students and their loved ones. Then publish a pseudonymous
collection of the writings and make it required reading.

About the only substance-abuse education program in place seems to be DARE.
A couple of candidates for Columbia school board, who swim on opposite
sides of the political mainstream, have recently questioned the
effectiveness of the DARE programs taught by police officers in public
schools. A few years ago, no candidate would have dared to utter such
blasphemy.

DARE, as constituted, isn't the answer. Studies exist both to support and
to denounce it as an educational tool, and I take no firm stand on the
matter. I'll go out on a thin limb and say that it probably doesn't hurt.

But my experiences as a father indicate that it doesn't exactly encourage
the kind of independent thinking youngsters need to resist peer pressure.
When I asked my fifth-grader what the DARE officer had told the class, the
only thing he could remember was this slogan: "Don't believe the media!"

It was all I could do not to respond: "Don't trust the cops!" No one can
deny that the police have a vested interest in keeping the drug war exactly
as it is. Another Tribune story last week told about how the Boone County
Sheriff's Department will receive a $65,000 grant to fight drugs. That's
two years' salary for the department drug officer, which frees up money for
another position on the woefully understaffed department.

Federal grants, state stipends, seizures, confiscations: The war on drugs
is bankrolling a lot of your local police protection these days. It also
has spawned whole spinoff industries such as prison construction and operation.

Yes, there's real money in the drug war. Unfortunately, most of it goes to
the bad guys. And that's the real truth.