U.S. DRUG POLICY IS SOUND, DESPITE WHAT MOLLY IVINS MIGHT THINK

The language of Molly Ivins' column, " Politicians lag behind the people on
drug issues," in the Oregonian on Nov. 18 rings nostalgically from the
mid-1960's.

She speaks of the "poor frozen political establishment" and a misbegotten "
war we're losing." The times are changing, says Ivins, and the proverbial "
emperor is wearing no clothes,"

Ivins calls for an end to the disparity in the sentencing between crack and
powder cocaine. Although the claim that these two forms equal " the same
drug" misses the enormous addictive potential of crack compared to powdered
cocaine, the point is still well taken. In fact, Barry McCaffrey, director
of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, and Attorney General Janet
Reno have called on Congress to reduce this disparity.

Likewise, the column criticizes " the establishment" for advocating more
prisons and longer sentences. The fact is, McCaffrey helped double the
number of drug courts that offer treatment rather than imprisonment for
first-time non-violent offenders.

Likewise, McCaffrey is calling for expansion of drug treatment in prisons
so that every inmate who seeks help --- and even those who don't but need
it --- can be cured from the addiction that fuels the cycle of drugs and
crime.

For more than two years, McCaffrey has been repeating that the effort to
reduce drug abuse in America is not a "war." This man knows war, having
nearly lost an arm in combat and having led the famed " left hook" that won
the Persian Gulf War. Instead of fighting, McCaffrey speaks of prevention
and treatment in medical terms akin to the search for a cancer cure.

As much as we'd like to think otherwise, 30 years have passed and this is
not Vietnam. We need to open our eyes and see what's going on.

The medical marijuana referenda that have passed in several states,
including Oregon, are something of a hoax because Marinol, --- the real
"medical marijuana" --- has been available for 15 years. The active form of
cannabis, THC, can be prescribed legally by physicians and taken in
measured doses as well as guaranteed purity. It isn't prescribed often
because new and better medications --- such as ondansetron and denisetron,
which have fewer side effects --- have been invented, but that's beside the
point.

No one argues that patients should have the right to bypass pure forms of
penicillin so they can grow it on moldy bread at home. We don't need to
endanger our pure food and drug system, which has made American medicine
among the safest in world, for a drug that is already available.

Mike Gray's book might be "lively"...polemic," as Ivins put it, but it's
short on science and facts. Prohibition worked in terms of reducing rates
of alcohol consumption and alcoholism; it wasn't repealed because it was a
flop but because the country wanted liquor to be legal. When substances are
sanctioned and available, use goes up --- including abuse by children.

The hard truth here is that legalizing a psychoactive substance would
increase abuse among young people, and the age of initiation has dropped
steadily, so we're talking about teens and preteens.

The overwhelming majority of America don't want to pay that price, so they
oppose legalizing pot.

Two good books on this subject are Dr. Avrum Goldstein's "Addiction: From
Biology to Drug Policy" and Jill Jonnes's Hepcats, Narcs, and Pipe Dreams:
A History of America's Romance with Illegal Drugs." These authors are a
medical doctor and professor of pharmacology at Stanford University and
Johns Hopkins University, respectively --- not a Hollywood movie maker.

The National Drug Control Strategy elaborates on the country's sound,
balanced, long range plan. Read it, you'll like it.

Checked-by: Richard Lake