A LIGHT AT END OF THE TUNNEL?

I was absently watching cable TV the other night, not fully involved, and
realized it was a situation drama - would that be a sitdram? - about life
in prison. I think it's called "Oz."

It occurred to me that Christmas in prison probably isn't a lot of fun. And
how much I would dislike being in prison.

That would be especially true if I had a drug habit. People who work in
prisons tell me drugs are available on the inside, which makes America's
war of drugs seem somehow even more ludicrous. The government spends
billions tracking down, catching, trying and convicting drug dealers and
drug users. They go to prison, where they can still get high. Doesn't make
much sense, does it.

I can't vouch for the validity of the drugs-in-prison story. I do know,
however, that 85 percent of the 2 million people spending this holiday
season in local jails and state and federal prisons are substance abusers.
Drug and/or alcohol problems generally are why they're there in the first
place.

Let's see, 85 percent of 2 million is 1.7 million. Multiply that by the
$25,000 a year it takes to house an inmate in prison, and you have, well, a
bunch of tax money that could be put to much better uses.

The director of the Clinton administration's war on drugs made a solid
suggestion on a better use last week - spend more money helping convicts
kick their drug habits, on the theory they'll do better in real life after
leaving prison.

This is a significant course change for Barry McCaffrey, Clinton's federal
drug czar. He has been jut-jawed in his determination to win the war on
drugs using military tactics. He is, after all a military man. But that
mission is - even in the kindest possible light - a shameful waste of money.

Someone in McCaffrey's office said it best:

"We're finally realizing that we will never arrest our way out of this
problem."

Still, the nation's state and federal prisons are full of people whose
crimes are actually an illness, in most cases fully treatable.

Yet this government persists in its war on drugs. Which produces bodies of
people killed by the local drug lords in Juarez. Dead people are in holes
there precisely because America's leaders think a war on drugs should be
fought with weapons, not ideas and treatment.

But the admission from McCaffrey's office that we can't arrest our way out
of the drug problem may be a promising first step toward controlling the
drug problem in America.

Many of you reading this probably are offended, even angered by the very
idea of legalizing narcotics, but this country has tried just about
everything else. And everything else simply has not worked. There are still
about the same number of drug users as in years past, but the price of
drugs is much higher.

That's because America's drug-war policy permits - encourages - drug
dealers to establish a market and set prices for their product. And they
decide which drugs will be in vogue.

A few years ago, when cocaine abusers were losing their sinus cavities,
drug lords recognized the need for a change of direction. They did that by
putting new emphasis on heroin as a chic drug of choice. How did they do
that? They handed out samples. Then, once the pattern of use was
established, they kept the price artificially low for a while. When the
drug lords feel the time is right, they tighten supply and raise the price.

Very entrepreneurial. Very American. And our political leaders let it happen.

Each time there's a spike in use of a specific drug, Congress and state
legislatures respond with a swarm of new laws designed to get those
crackheads or dope smokers behind bars. One point seven million, to be
almost precise.

The wave of border killings, such as have occurred in Juarez, are a direct
response by drug dealers to the Clinton administration's tougher border
policies. When dealers think they have a snitch in their midst, they don't
fire him. It's not a corporation. They fire at him, and rarely miss.

The U.S. government has an uncanny ability to make good business decisions
that help foreign drug dealers. A day's worth of heroin for the typical
addict should cost no more than 25 cents. But because heroin is illegal -
giving a seller the luxury of establishing price - the junkie has to pay
100 times or more than the drug is worth.

Does anyone not see the irony in a national policy that won't tolerate drug
use, but has no meaningful way to stop it, and whose policies actually
encourage underground trade that involves billions of untaxed U.S. dollars
going to foreign countries? We get the misery and they get the cash. Some
trade agreement, huh.

And money from this form of trade doesn't go to the other country's
agriculture or social services programs. No, it goes directly into the
pockets of low-life pond scum, people who gun down suspected informants -
they only have to be suspected - and bury them in shallow graves in places
like Juarez.

Most politicians don't like the idea of legalizing narcotics because they
refuse to recognize the problem. The truth is they have drug users in their
districts - perhaps in their own homes - whether or not they want them.
These are people whose actions are being dictated by foreign drug lords.
It's an invasion of America.

As many of you know, our son was addicted to heroin for 11 years. He has
been clean for more than two years. When I talk to him about U.S. drug
policy, he just laughs - like he knows something most of us don't know,
which I am certain is true.

That's what foreign drug lords are doing, laughing at us. They are amused
because they know there is too much moral outrage and indignation here to
permit the legalization of drugs. They know their huge profits are safe as
long as U.S. lawmakers insist on fighting a military-style war on drugs.

The amusement level may have fallen off a bit last week, however, when Gen.
McCaffrey's staff admitted there's no way to arrest our way out of the drug
problem.

John Lankford is editorial page editor of the News-Press. Write to him at:
P.O. Box 1359, Santa Barbara, Ca. 93102; phone: 564-5161; e-mail:
jlankford@newspress.com, or sbnpedit@newspress.com; fax: 966-6258.