RONALD REAGAN ON DRUGS

In 1986, U.S. President Ronald Reagan made history by urinating. Sure,
it's something every president since Washington had done, but Reagan was
the first to pee into a bottle for a drug test.

He did it voluntarily, but a few months later, Reagan signed an executive
order requiring all federal agencies to plan urine tests for employees in
sensitive positions. It was a turning point in the fledgling drug-testing
industry, now a multi-billion dollar powerhouse which recently convinced
federal legislators that collecting urine is not enough; they want the
hair, sweat and saliva of federal workers as well (see
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n570/a10.html ).

The drug-testing industry is one part of Reagan's drug war legacy. While he
was in office, he presented himself as an enemy of overreaching government.
But at the same time he demanded increased freedom for Soviet citizens, his
rhetoric and policies pushed the U.S. government further and further into
the personal lives of Americans.

Reagan wasn't the first president to promote and expand the drug war. And
the U.S. Congress during his terms challenged his excesses with nothing but
more excessiveness. But Reagan set the tone for the immense bloating of
the drug war during the 80s.

Reagan, at certain points in his administration, seemed obsessed by drugs.
In "Smoke and Mirrors," journalist Dan Baum's excellent history of the
modern drug war, Reagan is portrayed trying to get every aspect of the
government involved in the drug war.

"Let's go around the table," Baum quotes Reagan during cabinet
meetings. "Cap?" he addressed Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger. "What
are you doing for the War on Drugs?" Every member of the cabinet, from
labor to agriculture, would be quizzed on what he was contributing to the
crusade.

Reagan and his first lady were vocal supporters of Straight Inc., an
alleged drug rehab program for youth that employed psychological and
physical abuse.

"We want you to help us create an outspoken intolerance for drug use," said
Mrs. Reagan with the President by her side during a nationally televised
address in 1985. "For the sake of our children, I implore each of you to
be unyielding and inflexible in your opposition to drugs."

Many paint the Reagan administration as victorious in the war on drugs
because self-reports of drug use declined while Reagan was in office. But
that analysis overlooks the onset of those reported declines, which took
place before Reagan's term began. Another way to measure the success of
Reagan's drug war is to look at the crack market that was created during
his term in office. Before the Reagan years, no one knew what crack
cocaine was, but by the time George H.W. Bush took Reagan's place in the
Oval Office, the new president claimed to be able to buy crack across the
street from the White House.

Far from keeping crack under control, Reagan's policies launched the crack
revolution. "Dark Alliance," journalist Gary Webb's controversial but
thoroughly documented book, explains the relationship between the CIA, the
Contras and the crack epidemic. While many Reagan retrospectives have noted
the Iran-Contra scandal as the low point in Reagan's administration, the
drug angle has been generally overlooked.

Due to human rights abuse, the U.S. Congress had cut funding for the
Contras, who were attempting to undermine Nicaragua's Socialist government.
Reagan's administration wanted to continue funding the Contras, regardless
of the congress and regardless of law. So they used profits from illegally
selling arms to Iran to pay for the Contra effort. This much is
well-known; less analyzed is the Contras' financial support through drug
trafficking. Not only was this arrangement overlooked by officials in the
Reagan administration, Webb presents evidence that it was condoned and
protected.

Webb goes even further, tracing the first loads of crack to hit Los Angeles
streets in the mid-80s back to the Contra efforts.

The paradoxical nature of Reagan's war on drugs isn't exceptional; it
mirrors the whole history of prohibition. Seemingly noble words about
protecting the children are always twisted into corruption and abuse, soon
to be forgotten as the children face even more dangers from the efforts to
save them.

I imagine Reagan the optimist was immune from such dark thoughts. I
imagine he took genuine pride after filling a bottle to prove his chemical
integrity back in 1986. It's a shame Reagan's vision of a drug-free
America has left the rest of us as a nation messily pissing in the wind.