THE MONITOR'S VIEW - ADDICTION

BOSTON - WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10, 1998 Christian Science
Monitor

The worldwide war on drugs is not going well. It is taking far longer
than World Wars I and II combined. And not enough of the bad guys are
losing.

At the UN, three days of speechmaking and behind-scenes discussion of
the drug war should help nations review the logic of their antidrug
campaigns. Much of that logic is earnest but unsuccessful. It does not
concentrate nearly enough on preventing addiction in drug-consuming
societies.

That involves nothing less than changing thinking in millions of
individuals. It is akin to the Vietnam War's never quite implemented
plan to win the hearts and minds of people in the battle zone.

The brief UN drug parley has not resolved long-running debate over:
(1) Attack (cutting supply by destroying narcotic plants and
subsidizing other crops, tracking shipments, arresting kingpins and
street dealers) versus (2) defense (educating youth and treating
addiction) versus (3) decriminalization (needle exchanges, methadone
clinics, controlled legality).

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A huge hidden cost of drugs: the subtle argument that addiction is beyond
control of individuals.
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Advocates of point 3 have mounted a campaign, funded largely by
financier George Soros. Enlisted are many distinguished leaders -
liberals, conservatives, and drug treatment professionals. They raise
thoughtful doubts about focusing too exclusively on attack. But, alas,
their prescription, decriminalization (read controlled legalization),
is itself flawed.

As today's great tobacco struggle shows, a legal addictive substance
in private-sector hands confers huge money power to sway opinion and
subvert opposition. An alternative urged by decriminalizers is
government supervision. But that makes the end solution, changing
minds, especially those of children, all the more difficult.
Government can't be both an effective rival to pushers and a credible
evangelist for non-use of drugs.

Most citizens know why nations battle the $400 billion illicit drug
industry.

Drugs ruin lives. They spawn violent crime. They corrupt some
officials. They divert resources from solving other serious problems,
waste billions in the workplace, and sidetrack army and police units.
They jam court dockets and overcrowd prisons. And they distort finance
via money laundering.

All causes for action.

But there is one more huge, little-noted cost of drugs. That is the
pernicious impact they have on world thinking about addiction.
Millions of people have been subtly persuaded that addictions of
various kinds are beyond individuals' control. This has two bad
effects. It undermines all-out support for efforts to end demand for
drugs through effective treatment and deep-felt prevention programs
among children. And it reinforces society's overdependence on legal
drugs, alcohol, overeating, etc. People who say 'They can't help it'
or 'I can't help it' provide an excuse not to take full command of
their own lives.

That is the insidious argument to defeat if the war on drugs is to be
won.

Checked-by: (trikydik)