GENERAL: THE WAR ON DRUGS IS WON AT HOME

SOUTHINGTON -- The nation's general in the war on drugs toured the area with
a message Wednesday: the battle against drug abuse must be won at home.

A series of public addresses in Hartford, Plainville and Southington
Wednesday by Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey sparked talk and debate about drugs for
all who heard his statistics and warnings.

McCaffrey, whose resume includes once serving as commander-in-chief of the
U.S. Armed Forces Southern Command, is currently director of the Office of
National Drug Control Policy in the White House. In Southington, McCaffrey
threw a whirlwind of statistics related to drug abuse to a room full of
town, state and national officials and people just interested in what
information the "drug czar" had to share.

His stories hit close to home for Southington Police Chief William Perry,
who recalled a "modest" heroin program in Southington back in the late
1960s, when police there knew of about 20 people using the drug. The
officers at the time pretty much knew them by name, Perry said.

"By the early 80s, every one of those people had died," Perry said. "None
reached age 30."

McCaffrey's focus on education at home also carries into the practical
world, Perry said. He remembers people arrested 15 years ago for their use
of marijuana. "We are arresting their children today," Perry said. "The
apple does not fall far from the tree."

Although Perry said the hard drugs such as heroin do not show their face as
much as they did decades back, he said their is no shortage of marijuana
use, cocaine and PCP. He estimated that there are two or three drug-related
arrests in Southington per week.

McCaffrey's rundown on current drug statistics, proposed solutions and
especially the sample of current anti-drug advertisements he played for the
room won a round of applause. But at least one corner of the room was not
applauding.

Laura A. Spitz, a member of Efficacy, a Hartford drug policy reform group,
did not get a chance to question McCaffrey directly in the roomful of raised
hands. Through her involvement with Efficacy, Spitz focuses on the
difference between marijuana and other drugs and said, "You lose credibility
telling them (children) marijuana is a harsh drug. We need honesty in policy."

Spitz also has concerns with money spent on advertisements like the ones
McCaffrey played for the room Wednesday. She said that every dollar that
goes into that does not go into actual programs.

After his presentation Wednesday, McCaffrey said less than one percent of
the budget for the drug war goes toward the drug campaign advertisements.

Spitz also raised the much-talked-about issue of marijuana as medicine.
"The government has published three different studies in favor of
marijuana." She said, questioning the assertion that marijuana should be so
vehemently labeled as a serious drug.

McCaffrey said that debate has been the "only simple intellectual issue I've
heard in three years." He raised the question of whether the positive
effects marijuana could hold are equal to the cost that would have to be
devoted to research. He also cited such studies as only implying that the
drug, not by smoking it, but by a pill, could only serve as symptom
management and not as a cure.

There exists, in McCaffrey's eyes, "a very clever and devious campaign to
legalize and normalize drugs in America."