LOST CAUSE?

A Frontline Report From The War On Drugs; Ethan Nadelmann, Executive
Director Of Drug Policy Alliance ; Interview

As executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance (drugpolicy.org), Ethan
Nadelmann has been one of the most vocal critics of the federal war on
drugs. A former Princeton professor, he founded the alliance in 1994 with
backing from billionaire George Soros. Nadelmann spoke with writer Daniel
Lazare.

PLAYBOY: Are we fighting a lost cause?

NADELMANN: Not at all. Surveys have shown that most Americans believe the
drug war has failed. More than two thirds support treatment rather than
incarceration for nonviolent offenders. Three fourths say medical marijuana
should be legal and 41 percent say marijuana use should be treated as a
health problem. Lately, we've had good news. In Tulia, Texas, where one cop
arrested 10 percent of the black population for allegedly dealing--no drugs
were ever introduced as evidence--a judge overturned the verdicts, and the
cop is being prosecuted for perjury. The Canadian parliament is calling for
decriminalization of marijuana. The mayor of Vancouver supports clean
needle sites for addicts to slow the spread of HIV.

PLAYBOY: Two years ago you speculated that President Bush would liberalize
federal drug laws. What happened?

NADELMANN: I knew it was a long shot as long as Attorney General John
Ashcroft, then-DEA chief Asa Hutchinson and drug czar John Walters were in
charge. We won 17 of 19 ballot initiatives and referenda to reform drug
laws between 1996 and 2000.

PLAYBOY: Was there a turning point?

NADELMANN: January 20, 2001. We were beaten in Ohio on an initiative that
would have allowed for treatment instead of incarceration, we lost in
Arizona on reducing mandatory minimum sentences and we lost in Nevada on
legalizing marijuana. The administration is now pushing for drug testing in
schools, workplaces, everyplace. What began as a way of eliminating drug
abuse in the military and deterring use by pilots and others in
safety-sensitive positions has become a way of ensuring that every person's
blood and urine are free of prohibited substances.

PLAYBOY: Why the change?

NADELMANN: The reactionary wing of the more conservative party is firmly in
control of two branches of government and increasingly in control of the
third. The U.S. also has a quasi-religious adherence to abstinence.

PLAYBOY: Yet the spiritual leader of the right, Ronald Reagan, seemed
indifferent to the issue.

NADELMANN: Maybe, but he appointed people such as Carlton Turner, who as
drug czar told boys that marijuana could make them gay. Rudy Giuliani, then
the number three man at Justice, wrote most of Reagan's early drug
strategy. The problem is, the harder you crack down, the more likely it is
that traffickers will focus on drugs that are more potent, easier to
smuggle and harder to detect.

PLAYBOY: This past spring George Bush signed a law, known as the Rave Act,
that makes it illegal to sponsor an event at which any illicit drug is
used. Did you fight it?

NADELMANN: We were able to temper it and extract assurances from Joe Biden,
the Democratic senator who sponsored it, that it would not be used to
threaten political events. Yet when the National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws and Students for Sensible Drug Policy held an
event, the sponsors were warned what might happen to them if anyone was
smoking a joint. Whenever the government creates tools that prosecutors or
the police can use, politicians' assurances are meaningless.

PLAYBOY: Do you have a road map for drug-war peace?

NADELMANN: You need to focus on the state and local levels. Look at what's
happening in Seattle, where doctors, lawyers, police chiefs and legislators
are changing criminal justice-driven policy into public health-driven
policy. That's how change happens.

[sidebar]

THE REAL ENEMY

29,106 - The number of cases in which a legal or illegal drug was mentioned as a
contributing factor or a direct cause of a person's death in 1999 (the last
year for which extensive figures are available). Some details:

Drug Cases

Cocaine 4,864

Heroin 4,820

Codeine 1,395

Valium 811

Speed 690

Marijuana/hashish 670

Benadryl 641

Elavil (antidepressant) 477

Tylenol 427

Prozac 305

Oxycodone 262

Xanax 252

Aspirin 104

PCP 98