SEN. JOSEPH MCCARTHY: UNREPENTANT JUNKIE?

Whether you love or hate 1950s communist hunter Joe McCarthy, does it
matter if he was an opiate addict?

McCarthy's life and legacy are back in the spotlight thanks to a new book
by hyperconservative commentator and author Ann Coulter. The book,
"Treason," not only defends McCarthy, but raises him as a hero.

I'm not really in a position to judge the merit of Coulter's arguments. I
don't know a whole lot about McCarthy, and I haven't read all of "Treason."

I did, however, skim about 60 pages of the book in small chunks while
loitering in various bookstores. I also checked the index for certain key
words. I didn't find "morphine," "drug" or "Federal Bureau of Narcotics."

To be fair, I looked in more academic McCarthy biographies available at my
local library, and I didn't find anything tying McCarthy to morphine there
either.

But, different researchers have found support for the proposition that
McCarthy regularly used morphine, refused to quit and was eventually given
an unlimited supply of the drug by the head of the federal government's
drug war. A good discussion of the evidence is presented in John
C. McWilliams' biography of Harry J. Anslinger, Commissioner of the
Federal Bureau of Narcotics from 1930-1962.

Anslinger, whose FBN was the predecessor of the DEA, first publicized the
allegation in his book "The Murderers," published in 1961. Granted, any
information from Anslinger must be taken with a grain of salt. He was a
one-man propaganda machine whose influence on the drug war lives on
today. When known facts didn't fit his ideology, Anslinger ignored them or
manufactured his own.

But, his curious tale about a hardened morphine addict in the U.S. Congress
has been confirmed by agents who worked under Anslinger, and the co-author
of "The Murderers."

In his book, Anslinger details a confrontation with an unnamed congressman,
after learning the congressman was a regular morphine user. It clearly
wasn't just any congressman.

"He headed one of the most powerful committees of Congress. His decisions
and statements helped to shape and direct the destiny of the United States
and the free world," wrote Anslinger, like McCarthy, a dedicated
anti-communist.

In Anslinger's account, he approached the lawmaker and berated him, saying
the morphine habit was a "grave threat to the country." The lawmaker
remained unmoved, replying that he would go to the street for drugs if
Anslinger interfered with his supply.

"And if it winds up in a public scandal and that should hurt this country,
I wouldn't care," the legislator said, according to Anslinger.

Anslinger reports relenting and offering the elected official all the drugs
he needed, so long as the politician didn't go to the street, thereby
risking a greater scandal. Anslinger "thanked God for relieving me of my
burden," when the lawmaker died.

After Anslinger's own death, researchers interviewed Anslinger's associates
and pinpointed McCarthy as the likely identity of the unnamed politician.

It is generally believed that alcoholism killed McCarthy. The official
cause of death was acute hepatitis. McCarthy Biographer David Oshinski says
that years before his death in 1957, McCarthy downed a quart of liquor a
day. Near the end of his life, McCarthy appeared "in a trance, unable to
recognize familiar faces or form intelligible words."

Anslinger's biographer notes that morphine was sometimes prescribed as a
treatment for alcoholics in the era.

Should Ann Coulter care about any of this? Given her views on drugs and
drug users, I think so. A few years ago, Coulter addressed drug policy
reform in one of her columns. She was not sympathetic.

"The most superficially appealing argument for drug legalization is that
people should be allowed to do what they want with their own bodies, even
if it ruins their lives," she wrote. "Except that's not true. Back on
Earth, see, we live in a country that will not allow people to live with
their own stupid decisions. Ann has to pay for their stupid decisions."

By Coulter's own definition, McCarthy made some stupid decisions. Do these
decisions impact her description of him as a hero? Did they impact his
work? Was it wise for Anslinger to let McCarthy live with his own stupid
decisions? Would the world be a better place if Anslinger had busted
McCarthy and treated him like a common criminal?

I don't know the answers to these questions, but I hope Coulter might
consider them next time someone asks her how society should deal with drug
users who refuse to quit.