AMERICA'S DRUG POLICY NEEDS TO BE REFORMED, REPACKAGED

Many of the most credible media outlets - from CNN's Ted Turner to
CBS's Walter Cronkite, from the conservative Wall Street Journal to
the liberal New York Times - have labeled America's War on Drugs an
abject failure.

We stand by that assessment.

In opining on the Vietnam War, a critic offered that America was
fighting an invisible enemy in an undeclared war backed by a silent
majority. As with most wars of similar circumstance, an invisible
enemy indicates no clear path for victory.

It doesn't take an Einstein to understand that expecting entirely
different results from the same tried methods constitutes insanity.

Many solutions to the nation's drug problems further complicate the
same problems the War on Drugs seeks to eliminate.

Drug policies are in serious need of reform. As they stand now,
policies are better at wasting money and diverting resources from
solutions than they are at curbing the rise of drug use or its
societal aftermath.

In a timeline of the drug war, PBS noted during the Richard Nixon
era, the majority of funding aimed at drug abuse went to treatment
rather than law enforcement.

This was the only time in the history of the War on Drugs that fiscal
policy provided a somewhat sound budget to combat illicit drug abuse.

The drug war is far from over. But rather than ending the war - which
isn't possible without either side forfeiting - it should be
relabeled, repackaged and reinstituted to combat real, rather than
percieved, threats.