THE RACE TO BE TOUGHER THAN TOUGH ON DRUGS

Senate candidate George Allen is taking a tired, old line of attack
against a malady that demands treatment.

ENOUGH, ALREADY, with the politics of one-upmanship in the war on
drugs.

Former Gov. George Allen, lobbing a shot at incumbent Charles Robb in
the campaign for U.S. Senate, accuses the Democrat and his party
leaders of failing to bring "moral authority" to the fight against
illegal drugs.

Allen pledges a righteous crusade against this scourge, which would be
welcome, indeed, if he were not talking about escalating the current
costly, largely ineffective, battle plan.

Interdiction has not stopped the flow of illegal drugs across the
nation's borders? Hire more federal drug agents, Allen says.

Long prison sentences have not kept law-breakers out of the lucrative
illegal-drug trade? Double mandatory minimum sentences for selling
drugs to minors, Allen says, and increase penalties for trafficking in
certain drugs.

The Republican wants to get tough on drugs - as if current laws were
not tough. They are.

Police and court officials on the front line of this so-called war are
growing increasingly certain that the nation will never rid itself of
the serious ill effects of illegal drug use by trying to cut off the
supply and imprisoning more and more people for longer and longer terms.

Rather than hammering out the same old drumbeat - more cops, more
prisons; more cops, more prisons - politicians truly determined to cut
the losses that drug abuse is inflicting on society and on individual
lives need a new battle cry.

Education, treatment. Education, treatment. Education,
treatment.

Support for those strategies must not be a mere afterthought, either -
as in Allen's slight bow toward prevention in proposing a National
Council on Drug Awareness. (Would that be anything like the current
Council on Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse?)

The politicians want to save our communities from the harm done by
illegal drugs? How about an all-out attack on ignorance and addiction?
Now there is a battle that needs fighting.