U.S. antidrug effort called "a failed war" | Feb. 12, story

WE CAN'T AFFORD TO GO SOFT ON DRUGS

I would have laughed at this article if were not for the fact that
the drug problem is so serious. How ironic that former presidents
from three countries where drugs are out of control and where it is
totally unsafe to walk the streets would call our efforts to push
back against drugs a failure.

As a drug policy expert with more than 25 years experience, I have
visited these countries and others where drugs have spiraled out of
control, and their families literally fear for their lives. In these
countries drugs are tolerated, corruption abounds, and treatment is
virtually nonexistent.

The reality is that the U.S. drug policy is a comprehensive one that
includes prevention and education, treatment and law enforcement and
interdiction -- contrary to the article's assertion that we are
relying exclusively on policing. In December, I was present at the
White House when the Monitoring the Future study was released. The
annual study found that drug use among our youth decreased 25 percent
from 2001 to 2008. This is not a failure!

The biased Latin American Commission report, funded by the
"Granddaddy Warbucks" of drug legalization, George Soros, promotes
the "European methods of drug prevention and treatment." I've seen
the disastrous European method. As taxpaying citizens, we should
reject their practice of providing heroin addicts with free heroin,
all funded with taxes. We should reject their practice of keeping
people in addiction rather than helping them to sobriety. And we
should reject their practice of giving our children the illusion that
they can use drugs safely and responsibly if they just know how.

I have done much prevention work in Latin America and the approach
suggested in this article does not reflect what I am hearing from
families about what they want. The Latin Americans, like North
Americans, want their children protected from the scourge of drugs
and want them to reject drug use and destructive behavior that goes
along with it.

Approximately 54 percent of all of those in U.S. federal prisons are
there because of serious drug offenses -- not low-level offenses that
result in probation, fines and referral to drug courts. Approximately
75 percent of our foster care and 80 percent of domestic abuse cases
are due to substance abuse. Society just simply cannot afford to be
soft on drugs!

Calvina Fay, executive director, Drug Free America Foundation Inc.,
St. Petersburg