WAR ON DRUGS INADEQUATE

So much focus has been directed at the War on Terror that America's
War on Drugs has dropped out of the public eye. The fight to prevent
drug use and abuse is led by a variety of agencies including the
White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and the
federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

These agencies focus primarily on marijuana, a decision many feel is
misguided. Although marijuana is both the most readily available and
most used drug in the United States, it is also one of the least
dangerous. If used regularly, approximately 27 of 30 days a month, it
can permanently damage nerve cells containing dopamine, which
regulate feelings of motivation and reward.

It can also be addicting and smoking it poses the same cancer risks
as smoking cigarettes. However, when used in moderation, the
long-term effects of marijuana are negligible. According to a report
in The New York Times by Dr. Sally Satel, "Older teenagers who
experiment with marijuana generally function as well as nonusers with
respect to school and mental well-being."

The federal government chooses to concentrate its efforts on
marijuana because of the plant's dubious distinction as a "gateway
drug." However, the link between marijuana and other drugs is not
direct. This is clear because while most users of harder drugs like
heroin and cocaine started out using marijuana, few users of
marijuana graduate to hard drugs.

Instead, according to researchers at the RAND Corporation, "Marijuana
use precedes hard drug use simply because opportunities to use
marijuana come earlier in life than opportunities to use hard drugs."

Teenagers who go on to use hard drugs do not do so because of
marijuana, they do so because they are predisposed to. According to
Satel, while marijuana use before age 15 is a red flag for future
drug abuse, so are "truancy, failing in school, fighting, stealing
and drinking."

In light of this evidence, it is clear that underlying social ills -
not marijuana - are the cause of hard drug abuse.

While other government agencies try to fix these, the DEA and its
partners should focus their research not on marijuana, but instead on
drugs with more damaging effects on society.

In fact, in July the National Association of Counties begwwged the
White House to "put the same kind of emphasis on methamphetamine
abuse as they have in marijuana." State and local officials in the
West Coast, the Southwest and the Midwest have been overwhelmed by
crime, incarceration and child neglect related to the explosion of
methamphetamine, or crystal meth, use in the United States.

Primarily used in rural areas, methamphetamine has been called the
new crack and is making its way eastward.

Stronger than amphetamine, it is a stimulant that releases high
levels of dopamine.

Long-term use permanently damages the nerve cells that produce
dopamine and eventually effects body movement much like Parkinson's disease.

In addition, according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse
(NIDA), crystal meth "can cause irreversible damage to blood vessels
in the brain, producing strokes [and] can result in cardiovascular
collapse and death." Although it continues to ravage the western
United States, crystal meth is not yet a big threat to the Northeast.

New England has other drugs to worry about.

According to the Drug Policy Information Clearinghouse, a division of
the ONDCP, "Heroin has surpassed cocaine as the greatest drug threat
in Connecticut ... The drug's increasing popularity, especially among
younger users, is primarily due to the increased availability of low
cost, high purity heroin that can be snorted or smoked instead of
injected." Though snorting heroin is perceived as safer than
injecting it, it has the same effects.

Any ingestion of heroin can result in sudden overdose, collapsed
veins, heart infections and liver disease.

In addition, it was one of the most-listed drugs in drug-related
deaths in 2002. Both heroin and methamphetamine are dangerous, highly
addictive drugs much worthier of the government's attentions than marijuana.

It addition to focusing on more damaging drugs, the White House must
expand its attention from preventing drug use to helping those
already affected by addiction.

Because drug abuse alters gene expression and brain circuitry, it
changes the user's behavior and functioning, causing a chronic,
complex brain disease.

There is no single treatment for addiction.

Instead, the most effective remedy involves tailoring behavioral
therapy and medication use to the individual's needs based on who the
person is and the drug or drugs the person uses. Treatment must also
address other medical, social or legal needs of the patient.

Recovery is often a long process because addiction is a chronic
illness and relapses are common.

Comprehensive residential and out-patient programs must be readily
available and affordable and include strategies to prevent patients
from leaving therapy prematurely.

Drug abuse costs taxpayers billions of dollars in lost productivity
and medical costs, not to mention the price of incarceration. It also
affects children and families of drug users, spreads infectious
disease and leads to crime and homelessness. Comparatively, the cost
of addiction treatment is nothing.

According to NIDA, "It costs approximately $3,600 per month to leave
a drug abuser untreated in the community, and incarceration costs
approximately $3,300 per month. In contrast, methadone maintenance
therapy costs about $290 per month."

Methadone maintenance therapy, which treats heroin addiction, is one
of the most comprehensive and expensive programs, involving long-term
residential treatment and medication. Clearly, addiction treatment is
a good deal.

The drug prevention efforts of agencies like the ONDCP would be
cost-effective too, if only they focused on the right drugs.

Moderate recreational use of marijuana is not harmful.

It is certainly safer than using either alcohol or smoking
cigarettes. The more serious drug problems the United States faces
are methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine. The federal government must
focus on fighting these drugs to get ahead in the war on drugs or the
battle is just a waste of time and money.