FOCUS DRUG FIGHT ON THE 'DEMAND' SIDE

U.S. "drug czar" John Walters says half of the world's terrorist
groups bankroll operations with profits from the illegal drug trade.
His original confirmation hearing in 2001 was cancelled by the 9-11
terrorist attacks. Yet, in a meeting Monday with the Enquirer
editorial board, Walters repeatedly referred to drug abuse as a
"disease" and said attacking the problem on the demand side is the key
to winning the fight against drugs.

That's an enlightened approach. The U.S. is pursuing a balanced
strategy to attack supply and demand, with some success, but one thing
the studies confirm is that all U.S. drug abuse could be cut just by
delaying youth drug use. Walters says young people who don't start
abusing drugs by age 18 to 20 are highly unlikely ever to develop drug
addiction. Even those who start young, if identified early enough, can
be saved by treatment and counseling.

But public health agencies, hospitals, school officials and others
need to stop winking at warning signs of drug abuse and screen for
at-risk kids.

"I believe there will come a day when we'll wonder what took us so
long to do drug testing in schools," Walters said. Some Cincinnati and
Northern Kentucky schools randomly drug-test students in school sports
or other extracurricular activities. Test results are usually required
by law to remain confidential, and in no case are to be turned over to
police. Just the threat of testing can act as a deterrent against
students experimenting, and that delay is exactly what the Office of
National Drug Control Policy wants to encourage. Drug tests are common
in pro sports and other businesses.

Drug courts that divert nonviolent offenders from jail to treatment
also have helped. Ohio (as of 2005) had 70; Kentucky, 52. Drug courts
are spreading, but not nearly as fast as Walters and other would hope,
to dry up "open-air drug markets" on city street-corners. Monday,
Walters visited Cincinnati's Center for Chemical Addictions Treatment
in the West End. He readily admits all treatment is to some extent
"forced."

One tough anomaly of this disease is denial: "Who, me?" All of us can
help screen for at-risk kids, the earlier, the better.