EVIDENCE SUGGESTS NATION'S DESTRUCTIVE 'WAR' IS ENDING

Washington, D. C., finally seems to be getting the message that the
war on drugs has failed.

Following years of resistance if not outright hostility to reforming
our nation's drug laws, Congress has passed two major changes to U. S.
drug policy as part of an end-of-year omnibus spending package. First,
the legislation repeals a decades-old policy that prohibited cities
and states from using their share of federal HIV/AIDS prevention money
to fund syringe-exchange programs, which have been shown to reduce the
spread of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C and other infectious diseases without
increasing drug use by allowing intravenous drug users to trade in
their used syringes for sterile ones.

In addition, the bill overturns a provision that barred the city of
Washington, D. C., from implementing a medical marijuana law approved
overwhelmingly by its voters back in 1998. The city will now be free
to set its own medical marijuana policies.

The lifting of the funding ban on syringe-exchange programs
represents a huge victory for HIV/AIDS prevention and drug policy
reform that will protect hundreds of thousands of Americans from
contracting life-threatening diseases. Reform advocates are excited
that federal money could soon start flowing to syringe-exchange
programs around the country.

The move to allow Washington, D. C., voters to determine their own
medical marijuana policies represents another watershed, as Congress
has made good on President Obama's promise to halt federal government
interference in local efforts to provide relief to cancer, HIV/AIDS
and other patients who need medical marijuana. Congress should have
never stood in the way of implementing the will of the people, and now
the capital city is free to join the 13 states that allow the use of
medical marijuana by qualified patients.

While a lot of work remains in the states and at the federal level,
the reforms passed this month by Congress signal a national shift
toward more sensible drug policies. For example, in April, New York
reformed its harsh Rockefeller Drug Laws, eliminating mandatory
minimum sentencing for most low-level, nonviolent drug offenses.

On the campaign trail, Obama called for treating drug use as a health
issue instead of a criminal justice matter, and it looks like he is
beginning to follow through on his pledges. Administration officials
have endorsed syringe-exchange programs, called for federal sentencing
reform and taken steps to reorient U. S. drug policy toward more of a
demand-reduction approach.

It's too soon to say that America's long national nightmare, "the war
on drugs," is really over, but this recent action on Capitol Hill
provides unprecedented evidence that Congress is at last coming to its
senses when it comes to national drug control policy.

Bill Piper is director of national affairs for the Drug Policy
Alliance. Naomi Long is the D. C. Metro director of the alliance.