WEAPONS OF THE "DRUG WAR': HYPOCRISY, DISHONESTY, ABSURDITY

Santa Monica

OOPS. Federal drug czar Barry R. McCaffrey claimed last week that the murder
rate in Holland is twice as high as that of the U.S. because of permissive
Dutch drug policies. In fact, the U.S. murder rate, as a percentage of the
population, is 4.5 times higher than in Holland.

Hey, no problem, what good is being drug czar if you have to worry about
facts? If there's one thing we know after 20 years and billions of dollars
fighting the drug war, it's that the war will never be won with honest
statistics.

McCaffrey is a retired general unencumbered by prior familiarity with the
medical aspects of drug addiction or methods of prevention and treatment. No
matter. In the doctrine of the U.S. drug war, the patient is the enemy.

In appointing this tough general to direct the U.S. Office of National Drug
Control Policy, President Clinton proved that he was as asinine on drug
policy as those who had never held a joint in their hands. Clinton scored
big politically, but the result is a continuation of a war on our own
citizens with disastrous consequences.

The Dutch have rejected the war metaphor. While drugs remain officially
illegal, they have differentiated between hard drugs and marijuana, which
can legally be sold in small quantities in set locations to adults. Hard
drug usage is viewed primarily as a medical problem with emphasis on
treating rather than incarceration. The focus is on "harm reduction" -
education, treatment, needle exchange and methadone substitution.

On his brief stopover in Holland, McCaffrey pointedly refused to visit one
of the Amsterdam "coffee shops" that legally sell small quantities of pot.

"I am not sure there is much to be learned," he said, "from watching
somebody smoking pot."

How obtuse. Even the temperance fanatics of old thought they could learn
something of the evil goings-on in saloons by occasionally inspecting them,
sometimes with hatchets.

McCaffrey might have learned that smoking pot tends to lead to far less
aggressive behavior than drinking alcohol; that the mood in those coffee
shops is downright torpid. In fact, adolescent marijuana use is twice as
high in the U.S. as Holland. And alcohol is the main abuse problem in both.

I write this with a bloody mary near at hand. I am not in favor of banning
alcohol, but the evidence is overwhelming that it's a far more damaging drug
than marijuana. In the United States, more than 100,000 alcohol-related
deaths are reported each year; not one officially recorded death has ever
been attributed solely to marijuana use.

Lumping marijuana with illegal hard drugs is a continuing absurdity that
leads young people to distrust all anti-drug warnings. Yet this simplistic
and dishonest approach to the drug problem is at the heart of the new $2
billion anti-drug advertising campaign announced by McCaffrey.

Why not use that money to follow the Dutch example of honest education about
the drug problem and for treatment of those who are addicted? Treating drug
addiction as a medical rather than a criminal problem works. Serious drug
treatment is only available to 10 percent of those in prison who need it.
Yet we continue to waste billions of dollars on failed war-fighting scenarios.

Drugs are more available than ever. Opium production has doubled in the past
decade. The only drug war "victory" has been to increase the profitability
of the illegal drug trade that now, according to United Nations statistics,
produces $400 billion in revenues, an astounding 10 percent of all world trade.

What madness to continue the current strategy at ever-greater human and
financial cost. In 1980, we spent $4 billion fighting the drug war, and its
hawks told us that was not enough. Now we spend eight times more, and they
tell us the end is not in sight.

This is a war fought in a contradictory and racist manner aimed primarily at
the urban ghetto.

Only 13 percent of drug users are black, but they make up far more than a
majority of those imprisoned on drug charges.

In 1980, 50,000 Americans were in prison on drug-related charges. The figure
is now 400,000, many for personal use, making this one of the largest human
rights violations in the world. Yes, because the very idea of jailing people
on the basis of personal behavior for a victimless crime represents a basic
violation of freedom.

1998 San Francisco Examiner

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett