TIME TO LOOK AT DRUG USE AS THE ILLNESS IT IS

This is not Jersey City. This is not the Bronx.

This is Lancaster, a small, livable city. There are jobs here. Nice
neighborhoods. Civic pride.

But almost nightly, somewhere, the peace is shattered by the pop-pop-pop of
semiautomatic handgun fire.

So it was bound to happen. Drug dealers trying to scare off competitors
opened fire, and an innocent died.

Leslie Ann Samaniego was only 25. A receptionist at the YMCA and the mother
of three, she was a newcomer to Lancaster. She left New Jersey because she
thought this would be a safe place to raise her children. In the five hours
before she died from a bullet hole in her abdomen, was Samaniego struck by
the irony of her choice? She was shot two blocks from where a convention
center is to be built. It happened on a Friday evening while she was
walking with her 3-year-old, a friend, and two other children. They were on
their way to pick up a children's video.

That quick, 5-year-old Justice, 3-year-old Raphael and 2-year-old Michael
lost their mother.

What's The Cure?

"This should not happen, and it must not happen again," the Rev. Dr.
Randolph T. Riggs intoned Tuesday at a memorial service for Samaniego. As
if emphasis were needed, he repeated, "This should not happen, and it must
not happen again."

But how? How do we transform the ethereal longing of "should nots" and
"must nots" into action? How do we fix society so there are no more Leslie
Ann Samaniegos to grieve?

"Well, I think we could foster some sort of community sense that violence
is an unacceptable way to solve problems," said veterinarian Chris Barton
as he joined 100 others marching nine blocks down Queen Street to the
memorial service.

"There needs to be gun control," said Lisa Scott, a 20-something mother of
three kids who also joined the march.

"Popular culture has to change," offered Lisa's husband, Mike. "Get away
from the media glorifying death."

"I believe social responsibility should be taught to children," said Stu
Landis, attending the service with his wife and four children. "We need
neighborhood watches," said Angel Feliciano, a father of three standing
just inside the church entrance.

They're right, of course. Teaching peace, restricting guns, shaming
irresponsible purveyors of pop culture, joining hands with neighbors -- all
build a healthier society.

Drug Economics

But they won't make drugs go away. Any attack must start with the premise
that the brain is programmed to find pleasure in mind-altering chemicals,
whether it be beer or heroin. America's experiment with Prohibition
suggests that banning recreational chemicals and punishing users serves
only to feed a vicious black market.

The economics of supply and demand fueling the world's drug trade is so
robust that anything short of a police state is powerless to interfere. So
in cities such as ours, dealers peddle their poison, destroy neighborhoods
and battle other young men lured by the false promise of easy money.
Innocents like Leslie Ann Samaniego get caught in the cross-fire.

What would the end of drug prohibition look like? I envision a strict
government monopoly. I also envision a drug policy that delivers a
forceful, consistent message against substance abuse at the same time that
it seeks to rehabilitate, rather than punish, those who make the poor
choice of surrendering their lives to chemicals.

I'm increasingly convinced we can make society safer and saner by treating
drug use as a medical or behavioral issue, rather than as a crime. It's
worth considering. If we can end the profit motive that drives the
insidious, dangerous drug markets, will fewer young men lead lives of crime
and violence?

Will we stop shaking our heads over the deaths of good people like Leslie
Ann Samaniego? Will we no longer have to say, "This should not happen?"