HARD LESSONS FROM TRAFFIC?

The Drift Of Public Policy In The Matter Of Drugs.

The drug czar-elect in the movie Traffic has decided to look at the grit of
drug trade and drug addiction first hand, to which end he forages about
Tijuana and has a near overdose. Groggy from what he has seen, he accosts
his staff on his posh private plane going back to Washington. Michael
Douglas does one of his jut-jawed scenes, with which the movie is replete,
and says he wants all ideas ventilated. Everything. The director, who is
headed for Oscarland, wisely decided to cut away before any new ideas were
in fact proffered, because the drift of the movie — like the drift of
public policy in the matter of drugs — is: Continue, at breathless speed,
to accomplish…nothing.

At a recent press conference, Press Secretary Ari Fleischer was asked if
the president had seen the movie.

Answer: Yes.

Have there been any policy changes on the matter of drugs?

Mr. Bush has said that in his view (personally tested), treatment is more
effective than punishment. To this end, when talking about the subject with
the president of Mexico, the idea was evidently tossed around to
concentrate less on interdicting supply than on "reducing demand." How do
you do that?

Well, of course, the conventional way is to punish those who make up the
demand. If Johnny is thinking of buying some coke, the idea of a couple of
years in jail is supposed to deter him, and certainly does deter some
prospective users. The movie seen by the president glancingly acknowledges
the point, but its dramatic focus isn't on Socratic monologues that weigh
the lure of a snort over against the horror of a prison term. The focus,
quite understandably, is on young people who would do anything for another
fix and, in the movie, do.

Another deterrent is to expose the addict or near-addict to a depiction of
what it is like to suffer the thralldom of drugs. Five recovering users in
California were interviewed in Phoenix House, the fine drug recovery
center, after being shown the movie. They discussed their own itineraries
en route to addiction, and one 17-year-old said that if she had seen this
movie, she probably would have found the strength to knock off from drugs.

And then, of course, what is universally acknowledged as necessary is the
loyalty and devotion of parents. But, for the record, this didn't help the
Traffic people one bit. Michael Douglas's 16-year-old daughter repaid
parental concern not at all, adding wrinkles every few minutes to her
father's concern.

The movie ends with a Little League baseball scene that suggests that there
is a ray or two of sun out there waiting for those who hope hard enough.
The baseball scene comes right after an Alcoholics Anonymous-type sequence,
in which the daughter stands up before her fellow addicts, giving details
of her ordeal and the steps she thinks useful in combating the temptation.

But the dramatic theme of the movie isn't about recovery; rather it is on
hopelessness at every level, the hopelessness of the addict and of laws and
mores that collapse under the pressure of money. "How can Mexico's drug
lords begin to match the resources of the United States?" one naif asks. He
is abruptly stopped by the war-weary official who says the drug lords are
ten times as powerful as their adversaries. What they have working for them
is Americans willing to pay $50 billion for their products.

Recent figures advise us that hard-core cocaine users ten years ago
numbered 3.5 million. The figure today: 3.5 million. The key question then
becomes: How many of those who ten years ago used coke are still doing so?
Some continue to use the drug, some are cured, and some are dead. What is
the interrelationship between public policy and the incidence of cure? What
would that 3.5 million figure be if laws against coke were relaxed? What
would it be if the $20 billion now spent on deterrence were instead spent
on therapy? Ten years ago heroin users numbered 600,000. Now it is 980,000.
What was the drug czar doing that let that happen? Did we run out of money?
Manifestly the heroin makers have not run out of money.

One does not sense, in the new administration, any dramatic insights on how
to redirect policies that would seem to have failed. President Bush is not,
by background or disposition, a natural leader for a dramatic change in
policy. Yes, by all means reduce the demand. And yes, it would help
prospective drug takers to see the movie, Traffic. On the other hand, it
would be prudent not to view it repeatedly. That would make the viewer
reach out for any drug in sight.