RAISING THE WHITE FLAG OF SURRENDER IN THE 'WAR ON DRUGS'

Maybe we should raise the white flag.

That's what you do in a war when your casualties become unacceptable
and there is no hope of persevering against an overwhelming foe.
Rather than continue the conflict and face certain obliteration, you
surrender and hope for mercy.

It's time for someone in the black community to go to retired Gen.
Barry McCaffrey and ask for terms of surrender in the war he is
prosecuting.

Gen. McCaffrey is the director of the Office of National Drug Policy -
the drug czar. He'd rather not call it a ''war,'' choosing instead a
''cancer.''

McCaffrey, from the safe vantage point of his Washington office, would
rather see a sickness than see a concerted, organized effort to target
not a disease but a population.

It is called the ''War on Drugs,'' but it has never really been that.
Instead, as the list of casualties mount and the ancillary damage lays
waste to whole communities, it is really a war on minorities and the
poor.

The latest evidence of that fact comes in the form of a report from
Human Rights Watch, entitled, ''Punishment and Prejudice: Racial
Disparities in the War on Drugs.''

The findings are absolutely horrendous. They show that just as World
War II and Vietnam decimated an entire generation of males in the
general population, so has the War on Drugs decimated a generation of
black males.

While there are five times as many white drug users than black, blacks
comprise 62 percent of all drug offenders sent to prison. In some
states, it can range as high as 90 percent, according to the report.

Two out of five blacks sent to prison are convicted of drug offenses,
compared to one in four whites. In two states, one in every 13 black
men is in prison. Nationwide, one in every 20 black men over the age
of 18 is in prison, the report continues. That means that minority
families also are victimized. And if viable families are the root of
prosperity, we face a barren future.

And, of course, there is the drug-related violence. The business of
drug selling is a violent one, and normal business practices are not
applicable. You maintain or expand your client list by force. In the
process, communities are held hostage, and innocents are added to the
casualty list.

But there are other casualties. Once a society becomes sanguine about
the violation of civil rights, it becomes easier to expand those
violations. In a war, martial law replaces the rule of law, and
everyone, even law-abiding citizens lose out.

Under Gen. McCaffrey's watch, new laws have been placed on the books
that reduce civil liberties to options and elevate simple drug
possession to the same status as rape and homicide. Mandatory
sentencing for drug offenses has removed any semblance of justice and
instead accelerated a conveyor belt whisking young black men to
prison. As a result, prisons now are a growth industry, commanding
larger and larger parts of state budgets.

With the proliferation of crack cocaine, the war escalated. Federal
law targets this cheap and accessible variation of cocaine as 10 times
worse than powdered version and dispenses sentences reflecting that
disparity. That it is more likely to be found in the possession of
minorities and the poor only exacerbates the sentencing problem.

We cannot win this war because the fight is not against drugs. If it
were, we would spend more effort cutting supply and not so much effort
prosecuting the victims.

Instead, this war is part of a larger problem that disproportionately
sends minorities and the poor to prison and death row. It is a
law-enforcement system - not a legal system - that does not operate
from blind justice. It encourages unfairness, racial and class bias,
and resists change, even when the resulting carnage is evident.

Surrender doesn't mean that we give in to the drugs. We cannot afford
that. But we also have to realize that though trafficking in illegal
drugs is a multibillion-dollar industry, minorities are not the
captains of that industry. Manufacturers and distributors of legal,
though debilitating, drugs - cigarettes and alcohol - enjoy their
profits behind gated communities, while also targeting our community.

But perhaps with surrender, we can line up for war reparations, and
have our communities rebuilt and our populace made whole. But the war
must stop. Gen. McCaffrey, we surrender!

Lou Ransom writes editorials for the Trib. His column appears
Saturdays. E-mail him at: lransom@tribweb.com