DRUG TREATMENT CAN WORK, BUT LEGALIZATION WON'T

On NBC's "The West Wing," President Bartlet sees the fight against drugs as
a lost cause and a huge waste of money. His surgeon general has declared
marijuana less dangerous than cigarettes. His staff overwhelmingly favors
legalizing drugs.

At the same time, in the Oscar-nominated movie "Traffic" the new drug czar
is so rocked by the enormity of the drug problem and his own daughter's
addiction that he walks away from the job.

All this makes great entertainment. But it is about as accurate as saying
"The Brady Bunch" was a portrait of real life in America.

The fact is, our national strategy against drugs is working. Over the past
two years, youth drug use dropped 21%. Workplace drug use has fallen to an
11-year low - 4.6%, down from 13.6% in 1988. The number of murders related
to narcotics laws dropped from 1,402 in 1989 to 564 in 1999, the lowest
point in more than a decade.

The number of people receiving drug treatment nearly tripled between 1980
and 1998. Neighborhoods such as New York City's Harlem have been taken back
from the dealers and gangs and, once again, offer safe places for
hard-working families to live.

It is true that the number of people arrested for drug crimes has grown -
arguably, one reason drug crimes are down. However, at the same time, we
have dramatically increased the number of diversion programs to break the
cycle of drugs and crime. These programs, such as drug courts, offer
non-violent, drug-addicted offenders supervised treatment in lieu of jail.
Ironically, the actor who plays President Bartlet, Martin Sheen, is one of
the nation's leading advocates for drug courts and against legalization; he
believes that the threat of jail time helped his son break free of addiction.

Contrary to the prevailing wisdom you may see on movie and TV screens, with
exceedingly few exceptions, we are not locking people up for simple
possession of marijuana. During fiscal year 1998, only 33 federal
defendants were sentenced to jail for base offenses involving less than
5,000 grams of marijuana. At the state level, more than 70% of drug
offenders were incarcerated for drug trafficking as opposed to possession.
An overwhelming majority of the total state-prison drug-offender population
had prior criminal histories, a quarter of which were violent.

President Bartlet's policy team should also take a harder look at the real
impact of legalizing drugs. Each year, drug use costs the U.S. 52,000
drug-related deaths and roughly $110 billion in additional societal costs.
Legalizing drugs would compound this suffering. One of the main reasons the
majority of young people never try drugs is societal disapproval.
Legalizing drugs would make drug use an accepted behavior and, inevitably,
more young people would use them. More people using drugs would mean more
addicts, more traffic fatalities, more human and economic costs.

Nor would legalization cut crime. The average drug criminal isn't waging a
turf war over black-market territory or shooting it out with the police.
Most drug-related crime is committed by addicts to get money to buy drugs -
the vast majority of drug users rely to some degree on illicit money to
support their addiction. Legalization would only increase the number of
people robbing, stealing and prostituting themselves for drug cash.

When the entertainment industry takes dramatic license with the facts about
drug use, it has a real impact. Children see drugs as less risky. Parents
grow less concerned and talk to their children less frequently about the
dangers of drug use. Public support diminishes for the men and women of law
enforcement who safeguard our families. Policy makers are less inclined to
do what's necessary to fight drugs.

Walking away in disgust from the realities of drug use can add drama to a
movie or a TV script, but in the real world it is plain irresponsible.