SUBJECT DRUG WAR TO THE IRAQ WAR TEST

Now that Washington is awash in rare bipartisan logic about evaluating
the goals and strategies of the Iraq War, the same reasoning should
apply to the other conflict America is hopelessly mired in: the war on
drugs.

The parallel between the two is undeniable.

Like Iraq, the drug war has been pressing ahead at enormous cost and
destruction without a pause for an honest assessment of whether the
tactics are working, or will ever work.

Yet while it only took three years for the American people to lose
patience with the Iraq War, the drug war has been dragging on
virtually unchallenged for three decades.

Given the cost, it's baffling that taxpayers haven't demanded more
accountability. State and federal drug fighting efforts cost roughly
$1 billion a week.

Here's the return on that money: Zero. Despite keeping more than
300,000 people locked up for drug offenses, narcotics use has held
steady for 20 years.

And despite a global interdiction effort bankrolled by the United
States, only 10 percent of heroin imports worldwide are intercepted
and only 30 percent of cocaine imports.

That means anyone who wants drugs, can get drugs.

The drug war has ruined America's cities. Gangs terrorize
neighborhoods and catch innocent residents in their crossfire. Up to
half of the homicides in urban communities can be traced to drug
trafficking. Police forces have turned into paramilitary units that
are often as menacing as the hoodlums.

The war has also destroyed families, particularly among our most
vulnerable populations. One in 20 black males is behind bars, with
drugs the primary reason. It's not just an urban problem or a black
problem -- rural communities are being decimated by the crystal meth
epidemic.

New Strategy Needed

It's changed who we are as Americans.

In the name of the drug war, we've forfeited civil liberties, vastly
increasing police powers and tipping the balance toward the government
and away from the individual. Half of the wiretaps approved each year
are for drug cases, and the law has been rewritten to allow their OK
on the scantest of evidence. There's no question that illegal drugs
are a scourge on the country. Drug abuse is the direct cause of 17,000
deaths annually.

For the health of the nation, we have an obligation to discourage drug
abuse, just as we do alcohol and tobacco abuse.

But this drug war is senseless. Its main focus remains marijuana, a
drug less harmful than alcohol, which can be bought over the counter
on nearly every block.

Of the more than $50 billion spent to fight the drug war, two-thirds
goes to law enforcement efforts and one-third to treatment.

That's been the formula since the beginning. But attacking the supply
hasn't worked and never will.

The focus should be on decreasing demand. Devote the bulk of the money
to more and better treatment programs.

The drug war should face the same scrutiny the Iraq War is
undergoing.

If we know the strategy isn't working, change the course.

If that approach makes sense for the Iraq War, then it surely makes
sense for the drug war.