STUBBORN FACTS VS. THICK SKULLS

Whoever coined the phrase "facts are stubborn things" has apparently never
come across drug war advocates - a self-righteous bunch, undeterred by
trivial matters of fact.

Let me share a few of these trivial facts with you. According to the United
Nations Drug Control Program (UNDCP), the illicit drug industry is an annual
market of $400 billion. That's eight percent of world trade - higher than
the exports of the automobile industry, worldwide.

Of course, the illegal drug business creates huge profits. A kilo of raw
opium in Pakistan costs about $90 on average. In America, a kilo of opium
sells for about $290,000. The UNDCP says that illicit drug profits are so
inflated that 75 percent of all drug shipments would have to be intercepted
by law enforcement agents to seriously reduce the profitability of the
business. Right now drug cops, internationally, intercept only 30 percent of
cocaine shipments and 10 to 15 percent of heroin shipments.

In 1969, the Nixon administration spent $65 million on the drug war. In
1982, Ronald Reagan - the patron saint of "free-market" conservatism -
increased "big government" spending on the drug war to $1.65 billion. The
"liberal" Clinton administration upped the ante to $17.1 billion in 1998.

That figure, obviously, does not include the $99 billion that the National
Institute on Drug Abuse conservatively estimates to be the economic costs of
drug abuse in America. And even though a 1994 Rand Corp. study found that
increasing drug treatment is the single most effective way to reduce drug
consumption, 60 percent of drug costs go toward drug-related law
enforcement, incarceration and crime.

What's driving all these illicit drugs in the U.S. market? The popular
misconception has the problem being one of "getting tough" on my peers - all
those baggy-jean, bandana-wearing gang-bangers and crack-addicted,
promiscuous black Jerry Springer show guests. According to the Substance
Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 74 percent of all illicit
drug users are white.

Who's being locked up? Mostly poor blacks who see the profitable drug
industry as being their most realistic opportunity to achieve the "American
dream." According to the Justice Department, 70 percent of all U.S.
prisoners are either drug offenders or were regular users prior to
incarceration. There are now more Americans in prison than there are on
active duty in the military.

Between 1990 and 1996, the number of blacks in federal prison for violent
and property crime decreased by 726. But in that time period, the number of
blacks in federal prison grew by 12,852 because of drug law violations. Only
11 percent of America's illicit drug users are black but blacks account for
37 percent of those arrested for drug violations, according to the Bureau of
Justice Statistics.

The incarceration rate for black men in America is four times as high as it
is in South Africa. Two years ago, the American Psychologist reported that
harsh measures like three-strikes-and-you're-out laws disproportionately
imprisons blacks and Hispanics "who are guilty of little more than a history
of untreated addiction and several prior drug-related offenses. States will
absorb the staggering cost of not only constructing additional prisons to
accommodate increasing numbers of prisoners who will never be released but
also warehousing them into old age."

And let's not harbor any illusions that the drug war is about going after
smugglers and kingpins. According to the Office of National Drug Control
Policy, of the 1,506,200 arrested in 1996 for drug law violations, 75
percent (or 1,131,156) were for drug possession. Only 25 percent were for
the sale or manufacture of a drug.

Right now Colombia is embroiled in a civil war. If you read declassified
documents and scholarly essays written by our military planners, you'll find
that their primary concern is using violence to establish a nice climate for
foreign investment, especially on behalf of U.S. based corporations.

The idea that we are helping the Colombian government fight drug trafficking
would be laughable if it didn't mean death to so many Colombian peasants who
are murdered and repressed with our crucial support. The Colombian
government has the worst human rights record in the hemisphere. And it is
estimated that Colombian narcotics cartels spend $100 million annually in
bribes to Colombian officials.

Apparently, drug war advocates are immune to facts. Meanwhile, the poor
abroad, and particularly the black poor here in America, are taking it on
the chin. As a former boxer, I can tell ya: a fella doesn't take it on the
chin without at some point either fighting back or getting knocked out.
Neither option is very promising when the arena is not a boxing ring.