THE WAR ON DRUGS IS STILL A WAR WELL WORTH FIGHTING

We've spent hundreds of billions of dollars on law enforcement, prevention and
treatment since President Richard Nixon declared the war on drugs in 1971. Yet
the use of illicit drugs continues to plague our country.

The federal government spends nearly $1 billion a month to fight the war on
drugs, but users spend more than five times that much a month to buy drugs.

Beyond the horrific human toll of 20,000 drug-induced deaths each year, illegal
drugs cost our economy more than $280 billion annually, according to the
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Incredibly, there are those who choose to ignore the human devastation and the
economic cost of the drug plague. Many of them are pseudo-sophisticated baby
boomers who consider themselves superior and hip in their wry, reckless
disregard of the facts. They may also smoke marijuana, advocate its
legalization, and rationalize cocaine by calling it a recreational drug.

And there is a surprising list of libertarians and conservatives, including
William F. Buckley and Nobel laureate economist Milton Friedman, who advocate
the legalization or decriminalization of drugs.

Another Nobel laureate, Gary S. Becker, professor of economics at the
University of Chicago, told me: "[Legalization] would certainly save a lot of
resources for society. We could tax drug use so it could even lead to
government revenue. ... We would be able to able to greatly cut the number of
people in prison, which would save resources for state and local government."

But the cost of drug abuse goes well beyond the expense to control supply and
demand. Drug users cost the country $160 billion each year in lost
productivity. Parental substance abuse is responsible for $10 billion of the
$14 billion spent nationally each year on child welfare costs. And drugs are
involved in seven out of every 10 cases of child abuse and neglect.

Pete Wilson, the former governor of California, is a strong opponent of drug
legalization. Wilson says the problem that advocates of legalization fail to
acknowledge is that drugs are addictive in nature and are therefore not just
another commodity.

"Drugs did not become viewed as bad because they are illegal," Wilson says.
"Rather, they became illegal because they are clearly bad."

Although the war on drugs certainly has not captured the American public's
attention to the extent that it should, there has been success in efforts to
curb drug use and supply.

According to the University of Michigan's "Monitoring the Future" study, the
percentage of high school seniors who reported using any drug within the past
month decreased from 39 percent in 1978 to 26 percent in 2001. There are a
total of 9 million fewer drug users in America now than there were in 1979. And
coca cultivation was 15 percent lower in Colombia in 2002, due to the combined
efforts of the U.S. and Colombian governments.

Drug czar John Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy,
is optimistic about the war on drugs. "We have to remember that, since we got
serious in the '80s, overall drug use is half of what it was -- and that's
progress," Walters told me last week.

I would say that is quite a lot of progress. But the job is only half done.