MEDICALIZE DRUGS

Editor:

Drug Czar Barry R. McCaffrey claims that a multifaceted approach will be
successful in overcoming the threat posed by illegal drugs (Sun, 4/6/00). He
offers every imaginable approach but the one that keeps the whole thing
going--and without which none of his other solutions will make a qualitative
dent in the overall crisis.

I refer, of course, to the profit motive.

...If prevention indeed were our government's most important goal, our
government would begin by removing the profit motive from merchandizing
these addictive substances...

If an addict could go to a clinic and purchase, at cost, drugs he or she
would otherwise get on the street, we could really begin to solve the
problem....While it could still be illegal to sell drugs on the street, if
there were no profit in it, who would want to do it?

...All the money we'd save from interdiction and intervention, cops, courts,
and prisons, could be used for real treatment-on-demand, along with an
honest education program.

...The three out of four murders and 90% of felonies committed in Baltimore
simply wouldn't be happening if addicts could buy their drugs at cost. And
we wouldn't have to be choosing between a zero-tolerance police state and a
high crime rate...

McCaffrey's $1 billion anti-drug media campaign is nothing more than tax
welfare for the TV networks.

And let me add as an aside: It is a misnomer to say that Mayor O'Malley is
removing drug markets. He is simply redistributing them--and hoping we're
all too stupid to catch on.

Robert Kaufman