WAR ON DRUGS

How Can We Win Some More Ground?

It has become fashionable in elite circles to claim that the United
States is losing the War on Drugs when the truth is that we may be
winning some battles.

According to the most recent report of the Partnership for a
Drug-Free America, the overall rates of drug use are lower now than
they were 15 years ago. In 1985, there were an estimated 23.3 million
monthly users of illegal drugs in the United States. In 2000, there
were 14.8 million.

In a Gallup poll last year, nearly half of Americans indicated that
they thought the country was making drugs less acceptable. In a poll
taken three years earlier, fewer than a third of them were as hopeful.

Even among our youths, the segment of our population that remains the
most "at risk" for experimenting with illicit drugs, the news is not
all bad. Use rates for marijuana and cocaine among American teenagers
have declined from 10 years ago, despite the increased popularity of
designer and "rave" drugs.

But there is still plenty of bad news. We still spend too much of our
drug budget on enforcement and not enough on treatment and
prevention. We still believe that this war can be won on the "supply"
front by cracking down on foreign drug shipments while ignoring the
"demand" front here at home. We still cling to racist stereotypes
about what drug users look like and where they live, preferring to
think that the plague is limited to minorities in the inner city when
it has long since made its way to affluent and mostly white suburbs.

And, even as children experiment with drugs at younger and younger
ages, too many of us still seem unwilling or unable to do the one
thing that survey after study after poll suggests remains the most
effective way to curb illegal drug use among youths: talk to our
kids. Today's baby boomer parents are part of a generation that had
exceptionally high rates of drug use in the 1960s and 1970s. Now,
many of them seem unsure of the best way to engage their own children
in a discussion on the subject or doubtful that it makes a difference.

It does. About 75 percent of fourth-graders say that they wish their
parents would talk to them about the dangers of drug use. And when
teenagers who don't use drugs are asked why they don't, a majority
cite a reluctance to disappoint their parents. More than jail time,
the most effective deterrent to drug use is an involved parent.

If it is fought where it should be - at the dinner table - this "war"
is still winnable, and this is no time for retreat.