A Drug-Free Open Society

George Soros and his staff must have been listening to Barry
McCaffrey, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy,
because Soros's Outlook article ["The Drug War Cannot Be Won,"
Feb. 2] echoes many points in the nation's drugcontrol strategy.
The number one goal of this administration is to protect America's
youth from the dangers of toxic, addictive drugs by reducing both
supply and demand. McCaffrey has emphasized repeatedly that this
is not a "war" on drugs, that there is no single solution to the drug
problem and that reduction in illegal drug use requires a
multifaceted approach.

Soros says efforts to keep illegal drugs out of the hands of
youngsters and others who would be hurt by these substances
reminds him of the war in Bosnia and his experiences behind the
Iron Curtain and in Nazi Germany. But most Americans do not
consider criticism "tantamount to treason" or "subversive." As
McCaffrey said in a counterdrug address delivered to students at
American University, "I'm not in charge, you are." Each of us must
accept personal responsibility for promoting a drugfree society.

Historically, American regulation of dangerous drugs, beginning at
the turn of the century, was a grassroots reaction to waves of
addiction that plagued our cities when unchecked access to opium,
cocaine, heroin and other drugs produced serious health hazards.
The control of narcotics and other substances was not imposed on
U.S. citizens by some outside force but expressed the will of the
people. Americans are correct in expecting a democracy to shield
them from harm. According to Thomas Jefferson, "The care of
human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and
only legitimate object of good government."

Alaska experimented with legalizing marijuana; when teenage use of
the drug doubled, the state repealed the law in a referendum.
Preliminary polls taken in California and Arizona indicate that only
three months after passage of Propositions 215 and 200 which
would allow the supposed "medicinal" use of crude marijuana
growing numbers of residents seek to repeal the initiatives. The
active ingredient in "medical marijuana" has been available for years
in pure form, without carcinogenic components, for doctors to
prescribe. Smoked marijuana has not been proven safe or effective
relative to legal drugs with fewer adverse side effects.

Soros says he does "not pretend to know what the right drug policy
is." Let's turn to health care professionals, social scientists, doctors,
law enforcement officials and government leaders who have studied
this phenomenon. Experts have identified a positive correlation
between availability of drugs and greater use.

Many criminals locked up in prison committed violent or property
crimes out of a need to feed their addiction. But legalizing drugs
wouldn't empty the prisons. In a study of heroin addicts in
Baltimore, researcher David Nurco found that most offenders were
involved in crime before addictive drugs exacerbated their
behavior. (Only 6 percent were not involved in any criminal activity
before they became addicts.) But offenders committed greater
numbers of crimes after drug abuse compounded their need for money.=20

Separating "hard" drugs from marijuana is not practical because of
the correlation between marijuana use and the progression to more
dangerous substances. Columbia University's Center on Addiction
and Substance Abuse documented the way in which marijuana
functions as a gateway drug. For example, a child who uses
marijuana is 85 times more likely to use cocaine than a drugfree
peer. Legalizing drugs will beget more drug use, irrational behavior
and social instability.

America is not a "loser" in its attempt to deal with drug abuse. Adult
rates of illegal drug use in the United States have gone down 50
percent over the past 15 years, from 25 million to 12.8 million.
Casual cocaine use has dropped by 75 percent in the past decade.
Only our young are using drugs at increasing rates (and earlier
ages). Making drugs more readily available will not help this
problem. When British physicians were allowed to prescribe heroin
to addicts in the 1970s, rates of use increased by 30 percent in
England compared with 10 percent in the United States. The
American historian Jill Jones documents that in the 1980s, heroin
use became relatively stable in the United States whereas it
increased 40 percent in England.=20

An open society does not mean total anarchy. We license cars in
America, protect consumers from unsafe foods and drugs, regulate
air and rail transport, monitor explosive chemicals and require that
dogs receive rabies vaccinations. Freedom of speech and press,
political and religious rights all are compatible with restricting
potential hazards, including poisonous and dangerous substances.

The writer is special assistant for strategic planning for the White
House Office of National Drug Control Policy.=20

=A9 Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company