FORMER DRUG CZAR MCCAFFREY: METH 'HANDS DOWN' THE MOST DESTRUCTIVE DRUG

Barry McCaffrey, a retired four-star general, was director of the
Office of National Drug Control Policy under President Clinton from
1996 to 2001.

He was in that role when methamphetamine use began to spread rapidly
in the United States.

He knows the extent of the problem and the ways the government and law
enforcement are combating it.

On a recent visit to Columbus, McCaffrey sat down with the
Ledger-Enquirer to discuss meth, its use and its growth as a
recreational drug.

The following are excepts from that interview:

How bad is the drug problem in the United States?

We need to remind ourselves that there are 5 million of us who have
chronic drug abuse problems. You can make that 15 million if you throw
in alcohol. There are 307 million of us. So, most of us don't have a
problem.

How do you assess the extent of the problem?

You can go to any municipal court judge, hospital emergency room
doctor or nurse and social worker. If you poll all of them, they can
damn near give you the name of every chronic substance abuser in your
community. They are certainly aware of all of the acute cases.

Where does meth fall in the drug problem?

The worst, hands down, is meth. You take a nice young woman, 26 years
old with three children, single mom and she starts using meth because
she is working two jobs and she's lonely and insecure. The meth makes
her feel incredibly good. Then, one year later, we come back and look
at her. She's a continuing meth abuser. By then, she is using alcohol
to buffer the fall. She is using heroine to buffer. She can go five to
15 days without sleeping. Her personality starts to unravel. It's
called tweaking. ... She has done permanent neurological damage to brain
function. By now, teeth are rotting. She is down to 90 pounds and she
is doing street prostitution. It is destructive of the human spirit
like nothing we have ever seen.

As a drug czar and a soldier, you are used to fighting cartels and
organized groups. How do you fight the clandestine labs?

First of all, meth is a cartel problem. The mom and pop labs have gone
down dramatically. Law enforcement all across the country and new laws
- -- we went after illegal pharmacies selling thousands of kilograms of
the generating compounds for meth. My guess is half the
methamphetamine we see comes out Mexico and a huge majority of the
rest of it is Mexican cartels operating in the United States. They
are, hands down, the dominant criminal enterprise in America right
now. They are the dominant criminal enterprise at the wholesale level
in 200 or more U.S. cities.

I would reverse the question. If you want to talk about dealing with
drug abuse -- meth being the most dramatic example you can come up with
- -- step No. 1 isn't battling cartels. Step No. 1 is prevention and
education programs aimed at young people between the sixth grade and
the 12th grade. That is 90 percent of what you have to care about. And
you would think it would be child's play to talk to a 17-year-old high
school junior and tell them why they don't want to do methamphetamine.
That's the major mission. We get a credible message out of parents,
school teachers, coaches, educators, you name it.

People they trust?

People they trust. Where the message is science-based, but appropriate
to the age group you talking to. Then, kids don't use drugs. Step No.
2, you have to deal with treatment. Once I am a meth addict, you are
going to arrest me for sure. And that's a good thing to do because I
am a one-person crime wave. You must arrest me and lock me up. And
when you arrest me it costs you somewhere between $25,000 and $50,000
a year. But while I am behind bars, I am going to do a lot less damage
to you than if you ignore me. The problem is you are going to let me
go. We have 2.1 million people behind bars. Every year, 25 percent of
them get released.

Say you have Smith, who is a meth addict -- what are we going to do to
get him detoxified and treated while he is behind bars? How to
continue to keep him in drug rehabilitation for the next five years?
You do that, you will have a moderate chance of significantly changing
their drug-taking behavior. You don't, let them out the door and 48
hours later they are doing meth again.

How did we go from meth being a biker drug and used by the military to
being arguably the most dangerous drug in America?

First of all, it is a great drug. If you use cocaine at $5,000 a kilo
- -- you stick some of it up your nose -- you will get a 15-minute high.
Then you will start binge-using cocaine until you run out of money,
you are paranoid and under arrest. Basically, you get these 15-minute
highs at tremendous cost. You make some nice methamphetamine and stick
it up your nose, you will get a six-hour high for a fraction of the
cost of cocaine. ... The problem with meth is it is rapidly addictive.
It is a blowtorch that melts your mental, spiritual and physical
person. That's the deal with meth.

I have asked others this question, but have never asked someone who
actually held the job, if you were drug czar, how do you fix the meth
problem?

I was. And I worked on it. Step No. 1 is go tell the American people
watch your children. Explain what meth is and why it is a fatal
option. Step No. 2 is do the rest of it. But the first step, is you
have to go talk to your kids.