AUTHOR CALLS DRUG WAR A `DISASTROUS FAILURE'

PLANO -- The country is experiencing a heroin epidemic, but the
escalating U.S. drug war is only making matters worse, author Mike
Gray says.

"What we have to show for our efforts is eighth-grade heroin users,"
he told an audience of about 100 yesterday. "It is happening here and
in Los Angeles, Chicago and Denver. It is a tragedy of monumental
proportions."

In Plano, where the heroin-related deaths of at least 18 young people
have shocked residents and made national headlines, Gray had a captive
audience at a Rotary Club meeting as he described why he believes that
the government's war on the $400 billion worldwide illegal drug
business has been a "disastrous failure."

By funneling billions of dollars to beef up law enforcement efforts
and to imprison scores of small-time drug users and dealers, the U.S.
policy has led to more violence and prison crowding, he said. The
government's zeal has made narcotics more attractive to young people
and has created a booming black market for drugs, he said.

"For God's sake, get this stuff out of the hands of children," said
Gray, the author of Drug Crazy, published this year. "But we have
created a market where the children are on the front lines and have to
be armed."

Alternatives, Gray said, are to provide treatment instead of
punishment for users and to put drug distribution under government
control through medical regulation and taxation.

Gray said he spent six years researching and writing his book, hanging
out with Chicago police officers during street drug busts, touring the
U.S.-Mexico border to see smuggling interdiction efforts and visiting
England to see a program that provides heroin addicts with daily doses.

Gray, who also wrote the screenplay for the movie The China Syndrome,
said that he isn't advocating making drugs such as heroin and cocaine
available to anyone on the street.

"I want to make them less available," he said. "You can have drugs
controlled by the state or by the mob. The mob doesn't ask for I.D."
Howard Shapiro, a Plano attorney who is representing one of the
defendants facing a possible life sentence in a Plano drug trial
scheduled to begin Jan. 5, said he thought that Gray's talk was excellent.

"For 25 years I've been representing kids whose lives have been ruined
by drugs," Shapiro said. "We've just created a generation of
criminals. Punishment is not the answer."

Shapiro's wife, state Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, is among
legislators leading the charge to toughen drug laws and to increase
criminal penalties for dealers.

Mike Teague, a reserve officer with the Collin County Sheriff's
Department, said he agreed with most of Gray's talk, but not all.

"We're definitely not winning the war on drugs," Teague said. "I do
know we're creating a lot of prisoners who we need to give hope to.
They make a mistake and their lives are ruined.

"But I'm not sure about legalizing drugs," he said. "There's a big
difference between legalizing alcohol and cocaine or heroin."

Susan Gill Vardon, (817) 685- 3805 Send your comments to
gillvardon@star-telegram.com

Checked-by: Rich O'Grady