MAJOR PARTIES NEED TO BEGIN TALKING ABOUT REAL ISSUES

The War On Drugs

Washington University will host the last of the three presidential debates
this year, and many people are already predicting a snoozer.

"Virtually everything we hear will be familiar," said James Davis, a
Washington U. political science professor. "No candidate is going to use
this national exposure to try anything fresh or to take any particular
risk, unless he's so far behind that he has nothing to lose."

The debate would certainly not be a snoozer if third-party candidates were
allowed to participate, but the Commission on Presidential Debates, which
pretends to be nonpartisan but is actually a toady to the two major
parties, will make sure that the debate remains strictly a
Democrat-Republican thing.

What a shame.

I wish the Libertarians were allowed to talk about our drug policy.
Somebody has to.

Three things happened Wednesday that brought it to mind. The first was a
national thing. A network news show did a story on Andrew Chambers. Readers
of this newspaper are familiar with him. He's the former Drug Enforcement
Administration informant who was paid more than $2 million to put people in
prison but routinely lied on the witness stand while getting those
convictions. Admittedly, most of his lies were about himself, but even more
troubling than his perjury was his modus operandi.

He would often create crimes. In one case, he offered a guy $1,000 for an
introduction to somebody who might want to buy cocaine. In this case, both
the would-be buyer and the guy who made the introduction were busted and
went to prison. A drug deal set up by the government and then busted.
That's how we get our body count in this war.

The second thing that made me think about our drug policy was local. A
group of protesters marched on the county prosecutor's office. Their
protest had to do with the two men who were shot to death earlier this
month at a fast-food restaurant.

One of the fellows who was killed was a low-level drug dealer. At least, he
had made two sales to undercover detectives. He had once pleaded guilty to
three counts of drug possession. The other fellow was a mechanic who
apparently was getting a ride to a friend's house. Both men were killed
when the bust went bad and the dealer tried to escape. Police say the
detectives feared they would be hit by the car.

Even if you sympathize with the cops -- I'm sure they were scared -- it's
awfully hard to justify this sort of thing.

The third thing wasn't even newsworthy. A friend of mine has a high school
kid who is on a school-sponsored trip to Europe. Three kids on the trip got
caught smoking pot and were sent home.

Despite the fact that we've spent a fortune on our war on drugs, drugs
remain so common that any high school kid could take you to somebody who
might want to buy cocaine.

I heard about the kid and felt bad for everybody. Of course, getting sent
home beats getting busted. It beats getting shot. And, hey, this stuff
happens in the best families. The son of the city's circuit attorney got
busted. When state Auditor Claire McCaskill was prosecuting attorney in
Jackson County, her husband -- now her ex-husband -- got busted. When Sen.
John Ashcroft was governor, two of his nephews were busted.

Does anybody think what we're doing is working?

Maybe Washington University ought to invite the so-called minor candidates
to a debate the night before the big deal. Maybe then the major candidates
would be forced to discuss real issues, like the war on drugs.

Then again, Al Gore admits that he used to smoke pot, and George W. Bush
won't say whether he ever used cocaine. So I suppose neither one would want
to discuss the subject.

It's much too controversial. Better for them to avoid it altogether.

But not better for the country.