WAR ON DRUGS NEEDS W'S LEADERSHIP

On the day of his inauguration, George W. Bush can carry out one
legal duty and show what presidential compassion means for Americans.
It means using power, persuasion and passion to save more American
lives than have been lost in wars. It means increasing the safety,
health and spiritual growth of American children and the protection
of the bouquet of cultures that makes up American society.

Bush can use the day of his accession to presidential power to
appoint his administration's leader of the war against narcotics. He
can give his judgment that this man or woman has the knowledge and
sophistication to develop and lead the strategy and tactics of the
struggle.

This American will need the strength to take the insults and
unceasing pressure of the enemies of the drug war at home and abroad,
as did Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who resigned with the change in
administrations.

Maybe the President could twist the arm of the first drug czar,
William Bennett, until he came back.

On Inauguration Day, Bush can take another step. He can promise the
world that he will consider himself the commander-in-chief of the
American battle against heroin, cocaine, marijuana and manufactured
drugs and that he will never abandon his innermost sense of
responsibility toward emancipation from them. In doing so, he will be
laying the foundation of his legacy on his first day in office.

I have no mad confidence he will do all this on Inauguration Day.
Neither he nor his opponent talked much about drugs during the
campaign. But if he does not at least move swiftly and strongly, he
will play a different and shameful kind of role - indirectly
strengthening the relatively small but overly influential clique of
Americans who belittle and befoul the advances made in fighting
illegal drugs.

Using a well-financed and skillful propaganda machine, they tell us
that America has lost the drug war. They tell us that the supply,
mostly provided by Latin American and Asian killer gangs, cannot be
cut off. They tell us the only way to deal sensibly and humanely with
drugs is to end punishment. They say among themselves that the goal
is legalization - but now say it rarely in print. They know the
public would not buy that.

So with money from a few billionaires, they set up and win
innocuous-sounding state referendums, disguised simply as permitting
the use of narcotics for sick folk. That's already possible, but with
the tight medical supervision that is absent from the referendums.
This is a sly crawl to legalization.

For shameful reasons - a social network, a press that is mushy about
drugs, the chic influence of a handful of prominent writers and
academics - the government anti-drug drive has failed to do real
combat with the pro-drug lobbyists. It has not directed the disgust
of society against them. Even using the phrase "drug war" makes
officials and journalists sneer.

Anti-drug organizations outnumber the legalizers, open or concealed,
by about 10 to 1. But you would never guess that by the press
coverage. Anti-drug organizations like National Families in Action
don't get ink because they are considered conservative. This
politically correct and socially vile attitude has persuaded some
normally sensible people to believe the war is being steadily lost.
That is a lie. Since 1985, monthly use of illegal drugs has dropped
42%.

Most anti-drug people fully understand the importance of therapy in
fighting narcotics. It is the government and anti-drug private donors
that finance therapy with money. Legalizers contribute their mouths.
They pretend that prisons are stuffed with Americans behind bars for
a puff of pot. But McCaffrey reports that in fiscal 1998, only 33
federal inmates were in for offenses involving less than 5,000 grams
of marijuana and only 55 for crimes involving less than 25 grams of
cocaine. More than 70% of 221,000 state inmates were in for
trafficking in drugs, not just possessing them.

So be sorry for some, but don't break up for all the prisoners. Visit
a pediatric AIDS ward and shed some tears for newborn infants
infected in the womb. Or for victims of violent crimes committed by
addicts before the cell door closes.

There is no one way to deal with addiction and the drug wars. It
takes a combination of steps, each critical: law enforcement, more
money and beds for long-term therapy - and eradication of drugs
everywhere they are grown or made. Anti-drug warriors know there's no
easy road; all three are essential.

The President-elect has not been a leader in the drug war. But he can
become one if it is in him - on Inauguration Day or soon after, very
soon. Not out of panic in losing the war, but joy and honor in
winning it.