THE WAR ON DRUGS STARTS HERE

If we have learned one thing in the protracted war on drugs, it is
that reining in illicit drug trafficking will require more than
fighting cartels south of the border. Nothing can be achieved unless
this country curbs its own demand for illegal narcotics.

The Bush administration, which offers regular lectures on the
superior logic of the free market, clearly doesn't get this equation
of supply and demand. Last October, Washington announced a new $1.4
billion assistance package for Mexico and Central America to combat
the drug trade. Then the White House unveiled its 2009 budget, which
calls for a 1.5 percent cut in spending on domestic drug prevention
and treatment programs.

The statistics on drug abuse for this country are at best mixed. The
share of teenagers who said they had tried illicit drugs within a
year has fallen sharply since 2000, according to surveys by
researchers at the University of Michigan. The percentage of students
in 8th, 10th or 12th grades who tried methamphetamine declined by
more than half over the same period, while cocaine abuse declined by
almost a quarter among 8th graders and 10th graders.

Still, teenage abuse of other narcotics, like prescription drugs, is
growing. So is drug abuse among adults. The latest National Drug
Threat Assessment reports that many more Americans over 18 are trying
everything from heroin to marijuana to methamphetamine.

Yet the White House's budget proposal for 2009 cuts the funding for
the prevention and treatment of drug abuse to $4.9 billion. The
budget for prevention programs -- like the drug-free schools grants
- -- was cut by 14.2 percent to just above $1.5 billion. After
accounting for inflation, spending on prevention has fallen every
year since 2002.

Mexico and Central America certainly need help to better fight the
drug gangs moving narcotics into the United States. But it is clearly
not enough. Washington has funded coca eradication efforts in the
Andes for years. It has given the Colombian government more than $5
billion since 2000. Thousands of police have died in Latin America
fighting the traffickers. Yet all the blood, tears and cash have had
virtually no impact on the amount of drugs in the United States.

The federal government needs to do more to slow the flow of money and
guns that finance and arm the cartels in Mexico and Central America.
There is little hope of ever defeating the traffickers abroad if the
government isn't doing enough to reduce demand at home.