LEGALIZE DRUGS? NO WAY, CZAR TELLS HOUSE

Washington - Legalizing drugs would only lead to more abuse, crime and
social disruption. White House drug policy chief Barry McCaffrey said
Wednesday during a House hearing about the drug legalization.

"Youth access to and use of alcohol and cigarettes is bad enough,"
McCaffrey told the House government Reform criminal justice panel.
"American parents clearly don't want children to use a fake ID at he
corner store to buy heroin."

McCaffrey was backed up by the Drug Enforcement Administration's
deputy administrator, Donnie Marshall.

He said that "once America gives in to the drug culture, and all the
social decay that comes with such a culture, it would be very hard to
restore a decent civic culture without a cost to America's civil
liberties that would be prohibitively high."

But others questioned the emphasis on criminalizing drug use.

"Dysfunctional laws," said Ira Glasser of the American Civil Liberties
Union, have resulted in "massive incarceration -- much of it racially
disparate -- and the violation of a wide range of constitutional rights."

The number of drug offenders in state and federal prisons has gone
from 12,000 in 1980 to 281,000 in 1997, said Scott Ehlers of the Drug
Policy Foundation, which advocates drug law reforms.

"Drug use and addiction should be treated as public health issues, not
criminal justice problems," Ehlers said.

Opinions differed among panel members.

Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., chairman of the subcommittee, said there can
be no retreat in the war on drugs because "the simple truth is that
drugs destroy lives."

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., who said he lives in a drug-infested
neighborhood in Baltimore, said he opposed the criminalization of
drugs.

"I am for making sure that people are treated. We must have a more
humane society," Cummings said.