EASE UP IN DRUG WAR? SMART BUT UNLIKELY

The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for
individuals and societies around the world."

That's just the first line of the first paragraph of the Report of
the Global Commission on Drug Policy. The paragraphs that follow
don't mince words, either:

"Fifty years after the initiation of the UN Single Convention on
Narcotic Drugs, and 40 years after President Nixon launched the US
government's war on drugs, fundamental reforms in national and global
policies are urgently needed," the report continued.

The 24-page policy paper is a blunt, logical and morally coherent
analysis of the war on drugs. It is refreshingly free of hysteria and
political double talk. That's the first hint that it wasn't authored
in Washington.

The report wasn't cooked up by an unholy cabal of celebrity pot
smokers like Woody Harrelson, Willie Nelson, Bill Maher and Snoop Dogg, either.

It was crafted by a 19-member blue ribbon commission that included
such notable "hippies" as former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan,
former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, writer Mario Vargas
Llosa, former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo and former U.S.
Secretary of State George Shultz.

The commission's recommendations are buttressed by data showing the
benefits of taking a more humane approach to dealing with drug abuse
as a public health crisis versus the traditional one rooted in
increasing militarization of the police.

The report challenges common myths about addict behavior, how drug
markets work and the likelihood that drug abuse goes up dramatically
in nations that experiment with alternatives to the drug war model.

"Vast expenditures on criminalization and repressive measures
directed at producers, traffickers and consumers of illegal drugs
have clearly failed to effectively curtail supply or consumption,"
the report continued in a burst of unadulterated realism.

"Apparent victories in eliminating one source of trafficking
organization are negated almost instantly by the emergence of other
sources and traffickers. Repressive efforts directed at consumers
impede public health measures to reduce HIV/AIDS, overdose fatalities
and other harmful consequences of drug use.

"Government expenditures on futile supply reduction strategies and
incarceration displace more cost-effective and evidence-based
investments in demand and harm reduction."

This may be sensible, but the international flavor of the commission
will kill its recommendations in Washington, where it is fashionable,
even by the Obama White House, to discount rational alternatives to
the bloody and counterproductive status quo.

Office of National Drug Control Policy spokesman Rafael Lemaitre
didn't waste a moment in attacking the policy paper as short-sighted
because of its emphasis on ending criminalization of drugs and
treating substance abuse as a public health crisis.

"Drug addiction is a disease that can be successfully prevented and
treated," Mr. Lemaitre said days before the paper was officially
released. "Making drugs more available -- as this report suggests --
will make it harder to keep our communities healthy and safe."

Never mind that once upon a time, a certain Illinois politician named
Barack Obama favored an unsentimental look at decriminalizing drugs.
The pre-presidential version of Mr. Obama would have gladly vouched
for the commission's conclusions.

It is often difficult to know whether administration officials are
being ironic or are genuinely clueless when an official describes our
drug-saturated communities as "healthy and safe."

America currently has the highest incarceration rates for drug use
and drug abuse in the world. There isn't a city, town or hamlet in
this country where someone determined to buy any desired drug can't
score it quickly, cheaply and with minimal risk. Drug abuse on a
massive scale in this country is already a daily reality. The only
thing that distinguishes one neighborhood from another is how local
law enforcement reacts to it.

Drug abuse cuts across all socio-economic lines, though the bulk of
the war against drugs is waged in America's inner cities and rural communities.

We didn't need a report by the Global Commission on Drug Policy to
know that the war on drugs has been a colossal failure. What we
really need is visionary leadership in Washington that is willing to
buck conventional wisdom to pursue drug policies that actually work.