A BRIGHT AND SHINING LIE

The War On Drugs

The parallels between America's war in Vietnam and its war on drugs
become clearer every day. In both conflicts, political considerations
forced the adoption of a strategy that could not succeed. And in both,
politics and inertia prevented a reassessment of that strategy even as
evidence of failure mounted.

This week, in his first interview since taking office, U.S. Attorney
General John D. Ashcroft said one of this top priorities would be to
"reinvigorate the war on drugs." Reconsidering it would be a better
idea.

Between 1990 and 2000, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's
budget doubled, reaching $1.5 billion last year. The number of
Americans in jail and prison, many on drug charges, has topped 2
million. But the number of illegal drug users has risen steadily since
1992. More alarmingly, the percentage of youths aged 12 to 17 who
report using illegal drugs during 1999, the latest available
statistics, reached the highest level in 20 years.

Evidence of the Vietnamization of America's drug war can be seen in
the DEA's costly "Operation Libertador," and in a recent report on the
paltry amount spent preventing and treating substance abuse.
Prevention and treatment have been financially starved in favor of a
get-tough approach whose success is measured with inflated body counts
and drug seizure totals.

When it was announced last November, Operation Libertador was billed
as a "major takedown" of drug traffickers. During the month-long
operation, the DEA credited police in 36 Caribbean countries with
2,876 arrests, including at least one cocaine kingpin, the seizure of
$30.2 million in criminal assets and tons of illegal drugs. But using
statistics to prove the success of Libertador is as meaningless as
using body counts to show we were winning the war in Vietnam.

A recent report in the Philadelphia Inquirer reveals that the cocaine
kingpin was actually arrested four weeks before Libertador began, and
that his assets account for all but $200,000 of the seizures. Nearly
1,000 of the other arrests were for misdemeanors related to marijuana
use; most of those arrested were released after paying small fines.
Nevertheless, the DEA insists that Libertador was a "tremendous success."

Meanwhile, states are struggling to pay for the devastating effects of
drug and alcohol abuse. And prison populations, enlarged by tougher
sentencing for drug offenses, are at an all-time high. According to
Columbia University's Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, state
governments spend an average of about 13 percent of their budgets - as
much as they pay for higher education - on the effects of alcohol and
drug use. In Missouri, that amounted to $1.3 billion in 1998, or
$245.19 for every person in the state. Illinois spent nearly $2.8
billion, or $230.54 per person. Of those per capita totals, less than
$10 goes to prevent and treat substance abuse. Ironically, those
programs have been proven successful. One recent study estimates state
governments save $5 for every $1 they spend on prevention and treatment.

The United States should treat drug addiction as a public health
problem, not a law-and-order problem. Spending money on prevention and
treatment works. Chasing down "drug kingpins" doesn't.