DRUG CZAR MCCAFFREY LEAVES LITANY OF FAILURES

Gen. Barry McCaffrey: He came. He failed. He quit. But not without taking an
unearned victory lap. What is it about the job of drug czar that causes its
occupants to heed Sen. George Aiken's advice regarding the Vietnam War -
"Declare victory and withdraw"?

That's what McCaffrey did last week when he announced that he would resign
his post on Jan. 6. "I'm enormously proud of what we've done," crowed the
general. "We had exploding rates of adolescent drug use, and we've reduced
it." This ludicrous assessment echoed Bill Bennett's upbeat tenor as he
ended his stint as drug czar in 1990, predicting that drug use would be cut
in half "in five years."

The truth is, in the decade since Bennett whistled past the drug-war
graveyard, things have gone from bad to abysmal. Despite McCaffrey's
repeated claims that "we are winning" the fight, the use of illegal drugs by
junior high kids has increased by 300 percent; it's easier than ever for
high school students to get drugs; drug prices are at an all-time low, and
drug purity is climbing.

This is an impressive litany of failures. But still more damning is
McCaffrey's unequivocal success in convincing both the president and
Congress to approve $1.3 billion in mostly military aid to Colombia,
dragging the United States into a three-way civil war. McCaffrey's "triumph"
is already looking like a disaster. According to the General Accounting
Office, in a report to Congress last week, "the Colombian government has not
demonstrated it has the detailed plans, management structure and funding
necessary" to implement the U.S. aid.

McCaffrey's other major claim to shame during his tenure has been the
massive escalation of our government's billion-dollar anti-drug media
campaign. Despite the saturation of our airwaves with ads designed to
promote the horrors of illegal drug use, research indicates that a rising
number of young people see less harm in using drugs.

Yet President Clinton responded to McCaffrey's resignation by singling out
as a sign of the "significant progress" made under the drug czar the fact
that "we have dramatically increased our counter-drug spending and launched
a $1 billion public-private media campaign to educate young people about the
dangers of drug use." As if the mere act of throwing good money after bad
represents sound drug policy.

As Kevin Zeese, president of Common Sense for Drug Policy, put it: "Gen.
McCaffrey clearly preferred funding TV commercials to investing in America's
youth. We are spending nearly twice as much on the ad campaign, the
glittering jewel in his drug-war crown, than the federal government spends
on after-school programs for kids - even though research shows alternative
activity programs to be the most effective way to prevent adolescent drug
abuse."

A fast-and-loose way with the truth has been a hallmark of the drug czar's
office. Take the statistical sleight of hand McCaffrey's office recently
used to turn an unambiguous failure into an apparent success: In 1996, the
general set a goal of having 80 percent of young people - based on the
perception of 12th-graders - consider drugs harmful. But despite his ad
blitz, the percentage of 12th-graders who looked unfavorably on drugs
actually dropped for three straight years, falling to 57.4 percent by 1999 -
a far cry from the promised 80 percent.

But this year, the drug czar magically pulled a vastly improved 74 percent
drug-disapproval rating out of his hat. How did he do it? Simple. He just
changed the rules. He based his latest figures not on the perceptions of
12th-graders but on the opinions of 8th-graders.

And like all good illusionists, McCaffrey never revealed how the trick was
done - the switch in criteria wasn't noted anywhere in the Drug Office's
published report. This is not only misleading, it may also be illegal since
Public Law No. 105-277 requires that when a government agency changes its
measuring standards, it must inform Congress.

In announcing his resignation, McCaffrey declared that the fight against
drugs "is not a war; it's a cancer affecting American communities." After
steering a billion dollars into the hands of the Colombian army and
spearheading the use of paramilitary tactics here at home - with more armed
drug agents, drug raids and drug arrests - has McCaffrey suddenly seen the
light, at long last realizing that drugs are actually a public health issue?
Or is he merely trying to rewrite his failed history before anyone else gets
to?