THE WAR ON DRUGS IS BEING LOST IN OUR LIVING ROOMS

The war on drugs is being lost in the living rooms of our nation.

The consequence is a legacy we bequeath our children, which is the
predisposition to adopt our addictive behaviors.

Whereas the mindless addict is a factor, the major threat is far more
insidious and pervasive. This threat lives within "looking good" families
who cloak empty lives with "responsible" drug use as a reward for their
educational achievements and economic successes.

Children often twist this message. Addictive behaviors become the
motivational force for obtaining both respect and success.

In 2002, 37.1 percent of Alachua County students reported at least one use
of an illegal drug in their lifetimes, and 18.3 percent reported use in the
prior 30 days.

The past-30-day usage rate corresponds to 10.8 percent among middle school
students and 24.4 percent among high school students. Illegal drug use is
higher in Alachua County than the state of Florida as a whole.

The Drug Court and places like The Corner Drug Store provide safety nets
for kids whose drug-related activities might have come to the attention of
the law. Over 400 Alachua county juveniles (children under 18) were treated
for drug and alcohol addictions in 2003.

Notwithstanding, some students slip past this safety net into the jails and
prisons of Florida. Overnight they are transformed from student to prison
inmate. This transformation often began in living rooms where "responsible"
drug or alcohol use was the norm.

I know these kids because they are among the inmates I visit in 11 Florida
prisons and jails each month. They are trying to make sense of what is left
of their shattered lives.

In the 30th year of the war on drugs, federal and state governments each
spent close to $20 billion for drug suppression: meanwhile the public spent
$64.8 billion on the purchase of illegal drugs.

What is there to show for thirty years of war? On the demand side, there
are 14.8 million citizens using illegal drugs. On the supply side, illegal
drugs have become more potent, more available and less expensive.

The logic that supports both the concept of the war and its strategy is
somewhat akin to scenes from the movie "Clockwork Orange." The losers can
be found in both the prisons and addiction centers of the nation.

On June 30, 2003, 14,689 of 77,313 inmates in the Florida Department of
Corrections were doing time for drug crimes. At the same time there were
1,194 men and women in prison for alcohol-related crimes.

Alachua Criminal Court had 1,553 filings for drug crimes in the
2002/2003-court year. There were 966 DUI filings for the same period. In
2001, the State of Florida had 31,021 admissions to publicly funded
treatment facilities for illegal drug use and 35,813 for alcohol.

If we narrow the scope to Alachua County, we find over 4,550 substance
abuse clients served in the year 2003.

Addictions negatively affect both individuals and society. At the
individual level many people suffer. Lives are destroyed. And until we deal
with the problem in the living room, we will all continue to feel its
impact in the economic and political arenas.

Politics are not a part of the addictive process unless we make it so.
There are medical, behavioral and spiritual elements that contribute to
addictions.

The addictive process is like stepping on a seesaw. You can walk backward
and forward on the board till you reach the tipping point and then an
out-of-control slide starts. Each person has their own tipping point and no
one knows what it is till the board tips.

A parent can pass on an addiction by setting a behavioral precedent. This
is akin to giving the child a helping hand on to the board of an addictive
seesaw.

In 2001, more than 6 million children in the U.S. lived with at least one
parent who abused or was dependent on alcohol or an illicit drug during the
prior year.

In 2000, almost 7 million persons age 12 to 20 were binge drinkers. That is
about one in five persons under the legal drinking age.

Focusing on the legality or illegality of any substance only distracts us
from the underlying problem. Any substance is harmless when left alone. Our
job is to face what motivates a child to drink or do drugs in the first place?

To do that we have to look at ourselves in the mirror and we may just find
we don't like what we see.

And that, in turn, may very well be why we are setting the precedent in the
living room with "responsible" drug and alcohol use. A use designed to
erase the unwelcome image or fill empty lives.

Empty lives are lives that confuse having the means to live a good life
with living a meaningful life.

The options are two. We can avoid our responsibility as part of the problem
and maintain the status quo or be a part of the solution. Up to this point,
we have been intellectualizing the problem to death, and in the end it will
lead to the destruction of our children.