NH IS THE REAL GROUND ZERO IN AMERICA'S DRUG WAR

When the United States Senate passed a $1.3 billion military drug fighting
assistance package for Colombia recently, the late Sen. Paul Coverdell of
Georgia said, "This is a landmark vote, striking the drug war at ground
zero -- Colombia."

Sen. Coverdell was wrong. Ground zero is not Colombia, but right here in
our own backyard.

In New Hampshire alone, more than 1,400 persons were enrolled in
non-alcohol drug treatment programs in October 1997. But, for every person
getting help to regain control of their lives, many others go untreated.

What New Hampshirites need is more and better equipped drug treatment
programs. Instead, what they get from Washington is a failed policy that
emphasizes tough law enforcement and drug interdiction in far away places
like Colombia, To make better use of federal tax funds, we need to replace
our current national drug policy built in Washington with one based on
common sense. When faced with important questions like "How can we solve
the drug problem in my hometown?" ordinary people use common sense to find
answers. Washington policymakers, on the other hand, rely on the politics
of expertise and twisted bureaucratic reasoning when faced with the same
question.

The tug of war between experts and ordinary people is not new, nor is it
restricted to Washington. Take local schools, for examples. Experts --
trained teachers and administrators -- are hired to operate our school on a
day-to-day basis. We know better than to trust the politics of expertise.
Local school districts elect boards of common citizens to keep an eye on
the experts and ensure our kids receive the kind of education we want them
to receive, not necessarily the kind of the experts say they should have.

Here is how a drug control policy built on the politics of common sense
will differ from the current policy built on the politics of expertise. The
politics of expertise, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the
contrary, promotes the bogus idea that drug supply lines from abroad can be
cut. The politics of common sense says our drug problem will be resolved
only by cutting demand for drugs here at home. According to the politics of
expertise, imprisonment even for minor drug offenses makes sense and brings
a sense of order to society. Common sense tells us harsh prison terms are
not constructive and actually drive many first time offenders deeper into
criminal behavior. The politics of expertise says Washington is where the
nation's drug control problem will be solved. Common sense tells us
America's drug problem will be solved the old-fashioned way, one person at
a time, in the hundreds of New Hampshire towns where drug users live.

The gap separating policy experts in Washington and the common sense view
along Main Street boils down to this: Do we spend our time, energy and
public taxes playing robo-cop outside our nation's borders, or do we
provide the information and treatment support citizens need to help
themselves? Once the demand for drugs on Main Street is cut off, the flow
across our international borders will automatically cease.

Two-thirds of this year's federal $19 billion drug control budget goes for
border law enforcement and South American interdiction actions. That leaves
only $6 billion for expensive advertising campaigns and inadequately funded
drug treatment programs here at home. No wonder United States treatment
programs accommodate only about one-half of the hard core drug users.

The gap separating what individual American citizens need from what they
are getting can be closed only if policymakers in Washington honestly admit
the so-called war can be won only by building treatment centers here at
home to help people reclaim their private lives, not by arming military
units in South America.

- --Ronald Fraser, Ph. D., writes on public policy issues for the DKT Liberty
Project, a Washington-based nonprofit, civil liberties research
organization. He resides in Burke, Va.