UNWINNABLE DRUG WAR

Defenders of the war on drugs say it's a matter of simple morality
that the United States continue a full range of anti-drug efforts;
it's an expression of opposition to drug use. Drug war defenders
fear that use of now-illicit drugs would skyrocket were these drugs
declared legal.

But a growing number of people are questioning this view as they
assess the more than 30,000 drug war-related deaths in Mexico since
2006, an erosion of liberties as government drug enforcement powers
increase, and an approach that too often favors incarceration over
treatment.

Now this group of questioners includes some important new voices. On
June 2, the Global Commission on Drug Policy released a 24-page report
concluding that the "global war on drugs has failed, with devastating
consequences for individuals and societies around the world."

The commission's 19 members included some heavy-hitters, including
former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz, former Federal Reserve
Board Chairman Paul Volcker, former President of Mexico Ernesto
Zedillo, former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Anan, entrepreneur Richard
Branson and well-known authors Mario Vargas Llosa and Carlos Fuentes.

The report found, "Political leaders and public figures should have
the courage to articulate publicly what many of them acknowledge
privately: that the evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that
repressive strategies will not solve the drug problem, and that the
war on drugs has not, and cannot, be won."

The report drew a sharp riposte from the Obama administration. "Drug
addiction is a disease that can be successfully prevented and
treated," said Office of National Drug Control Policy spokesman Rafael
Lemaitre said. "Making drugs more available "" as this report
suggests "" will make it harder to keep our communities healthy and
safe."

The opposite is true. "There's no history of that," Jeffrey A. Miron
told us; he's a senior lecturer in the economics department at
Harvard University and a senior fellow at the Cato Institute.

He pointed out that when cocaine was legal, before 1915, people were
aware that cocaine was harmful, so use was limited. Recently, tobacco
use has declined sharply after its harmful health effects were publicized.

The benefits of decriminalization, Miron said, would include reduced
crime and government corruption, and an "improvement in the lives of
drug users. They could get the drugs in a safe way," in a clean form
from a pharmacy, instead of possibly contaminated drugs from violent
pushers.

Decriminalization also would mean abatement of the deadly drug wars
the U.S. government has pushed on other countries, especially
Colombia, Mexico and Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, there is at least one good example of what happens when a
government backs off a drug war. After decriminalization in Portugal
in 2001, by 2006, "rates of lifetime use of any illegal drug among
seventh through ninth graders fell from 14.1 percent to 10.6 percent;
drug use in older teens also declined. Lifetime heroin use among
16-to-18-year-olds fell from 2.5 percent to 1.8 percent," reported
Time magazine.