NO WINNING THE WAR ON DRUGS, BUT WE CAN'T PULL OUT OF HERE

Dr. Eric Voth of Topeka, the state's most vocal warrior in the war on
drugs, probably is talking overtime these days to counteract newly
showcased proposals that drugs be decriminalized. He's heard all this stuff
before, but still can't let it go unanswered.

To those who think the idea of decriminalization has merit, and should be
tried, however, there are two recent presentations that seem to make strong
cases. We know what Voth will say -- rot, balderdash, nonsense, bilge and
baloney -- but here is the proponents' side:

Syndicated columnist Scott Burns of Universal Press took a trip along the
2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border recently. He left Brownsville, on the eastern
end, with the idea of reporting on the war on drugs, but by the time he
finished in San Diego he was convinced the war is a waste of time and
money, and the only answer is to make the production, distribution and use
of drugs legal.

Mass murder is a byproduct of the drug business along the border. Since
1993, more than 200 people have disappeared in Juarez, across the Rio
Grande from El Paso. A recent search for graves turned up nine bodies, and
authorities think there are up to 300 more in the area.

The police chief in Tijuana was gunned down, and he's just one of the 70
murder victims in this Mexican city below San Diego in the first two months
of the year.

Meanwhile, drugs pour across the border. Mile after mile of it, in Texas,
New Mexico and Arizona, is empty land where it is impossible to stop even a
small fraction of the drug activity. Drugs can be brought into this country
by individuals, rafts on the river, by airplane or what have you, with
little chance of being caught.

There is an endless supply. Burns quotes from a book, "The Late Great
Mexican Border," by Edwin Bustillos and Alan Weisman (Cinco Puntos Press,
paperback) on production. It says an acre of Mexican land can support about
44,000 poppy bulbs.

"It takes about 10 poppy bulbs," Burns writes, "to produce a gram of opium
gum, and each bulb can be milked three to 10 times. This means an acre can
produce at least 13,200 grams of opium gum and that, in turn, will refine
down to about 1,320 grams of pure heroin valued at $80 to $500 a gram in
the United States.

"Assuming minimum productivity and minimum price, an acre of dirt in the
Sierra Madre can produce a heroin crop worth $105,600. At higher levels of
productivity (10 milkings) and higher price levels ($500 a gram), the
heroin from the same acre could have a street value of $2.2 million."

Burns says that even if an American version of the Great Wall of China were
erected along the 2,000 miles of border, it wouldn't stop the flow of
drugs, or the corruption and killing. He says the only answer is to
eliminate the profit in illegal drug traffic.

He makes the conventional argument that high-quality, low-cost drugs should
be produced and distributed by government-sanctioned companies making a
normal profit, which would be used for drug education in schools, and for
treatment centers.

This would lead to a dramatic drop in the crime rate, since there would be
no incentive for illegal drug trafficking, and an accompanying decrease in
the demand for more drug enforcement officers and more prison space. It is
a great scenario, but the soldiers in the war on drugs say it's a pipe dream.

After columnist Bruns came Gov. Gary Johnson of New Mexico, who said he has
tried drugs, but is today a "health nut." Appearing on "60 Minutes" on CBS,
he also said that in a free society people are going to do drugs, and we
should legalize them rather than spend huge sums on more drug law
enforcement and more prisons.

He said let the government grow the drugs and sell them, and if that won't
stop it, nothing will. He is serious, however, in his argument that
marijuana and heroin should be legalized, and that our efforts should be
devoted to treatment and education, rather than on the current policy that
leads to nowhere.

Johnson said that in his younger days when he used marijuana, he found it
to be less of an impediment than alcohol. Opponents, like Voth, say
marijuana leads to heroin, and heroin leads to agony for the users and
those around them.

Johnson says we should treat marijuana as we treat alcohol, but opponents
say that won't work. They say the war on drugs must go on, even though they
must admit privately it's another Vietnam and never will end. Victory is
not even a remote possibility, and the only other option -- surrender -- is
unacceptable. We're chasing our tails.

Dick Snider's e-mail address is dsnider@cjonline.com.