WAR ON DRUGS TURNS TO CLASSROOMS

State and federal law enforcement officials say that cutting off the
supply of illegal drugs may be impossible. So, they are trying harder
to curb demand.

Over the past five years, the Office of National Drug Control Policy
in Washington has increased federal money for prevention by 33 percent
and boosted the money for drug treatment by 38 percent.

"That's really the heart and soul of what we're doing, combined with
continuing stiff law enforcement," says Barry McCaffrey, director of
the ONDCP. "We want to keep the social disapproval of drug abuse high."

The office recently began a five-year, $2 billion antidrug ad campaign
aimed at ages 9-19.

If you can keep a kid in that age group from using marijuana, alcohol
or tobacco, McCaffrey says, "he's home free. "He'll never have a
compulsive drug-using problem."

The drug policy board's strategy director, Jim McDonough, says that
today, half of America's students have used drugs by the time they
graduate from high school.

"So we're not talking now about a college sophomore smoking a joint,
we're talking about middle school children becoming exposed to
dangerous drug abuse," McCaffrey says. "And, oh by the way, more
eighth graders are using heroin in today's America than 12th graders."

Sgt. William Davis of the Louisiana State Police spent several years
doing drug interdiction along Interstates 10 and 20, two major drug
pipelines that stretch across Louisiana. He remembers the frustration
of knowing that so much dope was getting past him every day.

According to federal figures, the U.S. federal government spends $17.1
billion a year to fight drugs. But the drug cartels are making an
estimated $52 billion a year on drug sales in this country.

"We don't have the resources to combat what the drug dealers put into
their operations," Davis says. "So education is the biggest key right
now. I think that's the best way that we in law enforcement can go."

Davis, who now does public affairs work for the state police, touts
efforts police are making to get into schools and teach.

The same thing is happening in other states across the country: police
are more proactive in keeping America's youth off drugs.

But McCaffrey warns that it's a job the police can't do
alone.

"I tell people, you want to fight a war on drugs?" he says. "Sit down
at your own kitchen table and talk to your children."