HATCH CITES 'TRAFFIC' IN CALL FOR HOLISTIC DRUG WAR

WASHINGTON -- As depicted in the critically acclaimed movie "Traffic," the
national crusade against drugs is a well-intentioned flop that squanders
billions on efforts to disrupt supplies while doing little to curb demand
through programs such as drug treatment and education. It is a message,
apparently, that has not gone unheeded on Capitol Hill.

In a case of policy imitating art, or at least echoing it, a Senate hearing
room Wednesday resounded with pleas for a "balanced" and "holistic"
approach to fighting drugs in which treatment and education programs are
elevated to the same importance as law-enforcement agencies.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who presided over
the hearing and had a cameo role in "Traffic," said that while he has
reservations about the movie, it was "kind of a final tipping point" that
persuaded him of the need to step up funding for prevention. "That movie
just brought it home to me that we've got to do more."

Last month, President Bush acknowledged the need to curb Americans'
appetite for drugs during his trip to Mexico, while in Congress, Hatch
joined Republican and Democratic colleagues in introducing legislation that
would increase funds for anti-drug research, prevention and treatment by
$900 million.

The movie has its share of detractors, chiefly conservatives who regard it
as a plea for decriminalization. They argue that the movie poses a false
choice between locking up drug users or providing them with treatment, when
both are often necessary.

Well before "Traffic" opened in theaters, lawmakers from both parties had
acknowledged the need to devote more resources to drug treatment and
prevention programs and have begun to do so, according to retired Gen.
Barry McCaffrey, who headed the White House drug control office in the
Clinton administration. The federal government has increased spending on
anti-drug education by 55 percent and on drug treatment by 35 percent since
1996.

At Wednesday's hearing, Hatch cited a study showing that "in 1998, states
spent $81.3 billion -- about 13 percent of total state spending -- on
substance abuse and addiction." Hatch noted that only $3 billion of that
sum was spent on prevention and treatment, with the rest going to "shovel
up the wreckage of substance abuse and addiction," as the study's authors
put it.

Some liberal advocacy groups have seized on the movie to promote
decriminalizing drug use. There is no such groundswell on Capitol Hill. At
Wednesday's hearing, Hatch emphasized, "We must, and will, continue our
vigilant defense of our borders and our streets against" those who traffic
in drugs.