AMERICA'S DESTRUCTIVE WAR ON DRUGS

The war on drugs has not only failed, but it has destroyed countless lives
of individuals who have been caught up in this violent, ineffective and
senseless battle.

The public recognizes that the time has come to switch to new strategies.
With the passage of Proposition 36 and similar laws in other states, the
citizens are asking for public health care approaches, rather than punitive
and militaristic policies.

In this new enlightened climate, it is both disturbing and surprising that
the federal government is launching a 25-city tour with drug czar John
Walters conveying the message that "prevention programs work best in a
climate where lawbreaking is punished and young people are discouraged from
trying illegal drugs in the first place."

Punishment for drug abuse through the juvenile justice and prison systems
has done nothing but exacerbate the problem. Zero tolerance programs, where
teenagers in trouble with drugs are sent off to continuation schools to
separate them from the "good kids," aren't working because 54 percent of
high school kids admit to using an illicit drug by the 12th grade. So, it
just encourages teens to hide their use rather than seeking help.

Young adults who are sent to prison for their drug problems receive a
damaging education behind bars of how to survive in an environment of
violence and hatred. They either become victims of predators, gang members
and/or drug dealers, or hopeless convicts. Very few actually get treatment
for their addiction. More often the addiction worsens, because of the drug
trade behind bars.

Walters challenges neighborhoods to "unite and push back against this
problem." I agree with him that communities are our most important
catalysts for change, and I take the challenge by pushing back at the
federal government's bulldozing of the truth.

"Education" is a popular word but sometimes appears to be a "spinning" of
the truth. I sense a clever mis-use of the fear factor, as seen in the
recent federal ad campaign where it implies drug users' culpability in
actually aiding terrorists because of their drug habits.

We all want to clean up our neighborhoods and make them safe and drug-free.
The drug czar's statement that "even the best drug treatment program cannot
help a drug user who does not seek its assistance" goes against all the
findings of health-care professionals experienced in the field. Look at the
success of programs like drug court and Proposition 36, which mandate
treatment. The facts are that coerced treatment does work.

The San Diego community is uniting and collaborating to create positive
therapeutic solutions. We are tackling the problem of reducing the stigma
of the disease of addiction in order to expand treatment opportunities and
to broaden the public's knowledge of the core problems of substance abuse.

We are dispelling myths that punishment, zero tolerance and penal
warehousing are, in any way, effective solutions. We are concentrating our
efforts on the demand for, rather than the supply of drugs, so that we can
find educated, reasonable and healing approaches to solving our community's
drug problems.

Instead of promoting arrest, prosecution and incarceration, let's continue
to increase our understanding as to why our youth are using these dangerous
drugs in the first place. It is essential that we solve the puzzle as to
why they don't feel that they have a future worth protecting. We also need
to improve and increase the availability of resources that reduce and
eliminate the abuse and addiction.