DRUG WARS

Our View: Cutting Supply Hasn't Worked. Try Cutting Demand Instead.

Recent reports from a long, costly war far from the Middle East show little
success after 40 years of fighting and many billions spent. Without new
strategies, there's little hope of winning.

This war enriches criminal networks, destabilizes governments and corrupts
even in this country, from local to national levels. Measured by deaths
caused and damage done, the drug trade is a more formidable enemy than
Osama bin Laden. But we keep using the same misfiring weapons.

The latest news about this futile war comes from the White House Office of
National Drug Control Policy. The U.S. effort to kill coca crops in
Colombia isn't working. More acres remained in production at the end of
2004 than before a record-setting year of aerial eradication. History
repeats: The Reagan administration's eradication program didn't work in
Mexico, either.

Another indicator of failure is drug prices. They're dropping, meaning more
cocaine and heroin on the market.

U.S. soldiers - including some from Fort Bragg - are in Colombia battling
insurgents funded by drug lords who together challenge government in a
long-running civil war. That, too, could be futile. U.S. officials' long
pursuit of cartel leader Pablo Escobar didn't affect the drug trade. His
death in 1993 merely enriched the other cartels that divided his territory.

So what new strategy is available?

For starters, researchers need to look for better medical treatments to
cure or control addiction. Addicts are a large segment of the drug market -
the repeat buyers. They need more help than a prison cell provides, and
most can't afford to put themselves through "rehab," if they would choose it.

Then do a better job of following the money. Traffickers launder drug
proceeds through shell companies that make purchases from manufacturers -
and then hide under corporate layers. It's not anti-business to demand
accountability. Americans don't owe traffickers, or hucksters, financial
refuge.

One hint of a direction to take comes from the Foundation for Child
Development. Fewer teens than ever are engaging in risky behaviors,
including drug use, a trend that began in 1993. Are teens less hopeless
about their futures? Are after-school and anti-dropout programs helping?

Whatever is working, we need to know so communities can do more of it. What
we've been doing, trying to cut the drug supply, hasn't worked. We might be
more successful if we redirect more of the drug war's funding to reducing
demand.

Our only other choice is to continue policies that are 40-year failures.