DRUG WAR HASN'T BEEN SUCCESSFUL

Big deal. Marijuana use among teenagers is down for the third year in a
row, the Partnership for a Drug-Free America loudly proclaimed last week …
though, oh by the way, the use of the club drug Ecstasy is up. The Drug
Enforcement Agency and the U.S. Customs Service seized 10 times as much of
the designer drug last year than they did the year before.

Kids used to get high on one thing, now they get high on something worse.

Woo.

We've been getting this same kind of news from the anti-drug forces for
decades now. In the 1980s, too, a report arose that pot use was down -
though, by the way, we'd just invented something called crack.

Every time, it's the same thing: In abandoning pot, kids turn to something
more dangerous, more potent and easier to smuggle into the country.

Has the Partnership for a Drug Free America even really changed teen
attitude toward pot, and must now simply address the relatively simple task
of Ecstasy? That's one thought. Here's another: Pot now costs up to $80 for
a quarter of an ounce, and gets you stoned for maybe a couple of hours.
Ecstasy costs as little as $20 a hit, and keeps you dancing around like a
happy idiot until the sun comes up. You're a teenager. You have no money.
Do the math.

There's nothing to brag about here. Two decades of a drug war have had
virtually no effect, and may actually have made things worse. Adults and
teenagers alike continue to use drugs because they derive pleasure from
them. Drug users are bored, anxious or don't gain much fulfillment from
staying sober.

Solve that, and you've finally done something.