NEW DRUG SURVEY DEMOLISHES DRUG CZAR'S CLAIMS

"When we push back against the drug problem, it gets smaller." --
John Walters, White House Drug Czar

Well, now we know why federal officials chose to release the 2007
National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) ( see
http://www.drugabusestatistics.samhsa.gov/nsduh/2k7nsduh/2k7Results.pdf
)on a day when the Republican convention's climax and a string of
hurricanes is likely to keep it out of the headlines. The survey
pretty much dynamites Office of National Drug Control Policy chief
John Walters' claims of success in reducing marijuana and drug use
during his tenure, which he'd like us to attribute to his aggressive
policies, and particularly ONDCP's near-obsession with demonizing marijuana.

First, some raw numbers: The total number of Americans who have used
illicit drugs is up from 108 million in 2002, the first full year of
Walters' tenure, to 114 million in 2007. And the number of Americans
who've used marijuana has passed the 100 million mark for the first
time -- up from 95 million in 2002.

Rates of drug use have gone up as well. In 2002, 46.0 percent of
Americans had used an illicit drug at some point in their lives. In
2007 it was 46.1 percent. For marijuana, the rate went from 40.4
percent to 40.6 percent. Both the "any illicit drug" and marijuana
use rates had dropped a bit in 2006 and spiked notably in the new
survey. Illicit use of painkillers such as OxyContin is up notably
- -- a disturbing trend considering the addictive nature of such drugs,
not to mention the risk of fatal overdose (a nonexistent risk with
marijuana). "Current" (past 30 days) use of illicit drugs is down
only marginally since 2002 -- from 8.3 percent to 8.0 percent for all
illicit drugs, and the trend for marijuana is similar.

And, strikingly, despite all of Walters' huffing and puffing about
marijuana, the number of Americans starting marijuana use for the
first time has not budged during his tenure.

If this is success, someone please tell me what failure looks like.

But wait, there's more. ONDCP officials regularly argue that
maintaining criminal penalties for marijuana possession is essential
to stopping drug abuse. So what's happened with a dangerous drug
whose possession is legal: cigarettes? NSDUH conveniently provides
figures for past-month cigarette use, and both the number of users
and the rate of cigarette use is down markedly. In 2002, 26 percent
of Americans were current cigarette smokers; now it's 24.2 percent,
continuing a decades-long decline. And the decline in current
cigarette smoking for 12-to-17-year-olds is even more dramatic, from
13 percent to 9.8 percent.

That, of course, is with zero arrests for cigarette possession,
compared with 739,000 marijuana possession arrests in 2006 (the last
year for which stats are available).

The numbers are in. Marijuana prohibition is a wasteful farce. And
John Walters' tenure as drug czar has been a failure.