AN IDEA FOR NEW DRUG ADS

Some recent television ads about the use of illegal drugs in the United
States depict a series of conversations between a possible drug-user and
his anti-drug friend.

The potential or actual user is depicted as a middle-aged, well- dressed
fellow who believes that an individual's drug consumption is not really
harmful to society. His friend reminds him of the violence inflicted by
drug-selling gangs, and says that the purchase of drugs (however small the
amounts) subsidizes terrorism.

Given the illegality of certain drugs, this is a point well taken, and
repeatedly emphasized.

I wonder, however, if the legislators who have enacted state and federal
laws to suppress drug use ever asked themselves any of the following questions:

How long has the "war on drugs" been going on? How much money has been
spent on enforcing drug laws during this war?

How many individual Americans still use illegal drugs? How many are still
habituated or addicted to their use?

If drugs such as marijuana, cocaine and heroin were not illegal, what would
their prices be? How much money could gangsters make selling these drugs if
there were a legal (and regulated) source for them?

Is habitual drug use a threat to society requiring police intervention or a
personal problem requiring voluntary treatment?

What does such treatment now cost? How many poor people could get treatment
if they wanted it?

What illegal drugs have been scientifically verified as physically
addictive or dangerous to the health of the user? How much more dangerous
is it to take an unknown quantity of a drug in adulterated form (obtained
illegally on the street) than a carefully measured quantity of that drug
prescribed by a physician?

Is the use of marijuana without any benefit to the user? What benefits of
the hemp plant has society forgone because it is illegal to possess marijuana?

What effect has criminal enforcement of state and federal drug laws had on
the civil liberties of all Americans - especially on those guaranteed by
the Fourth Amendment?

How many people are in prison for possessing drugs? What bearing does this
have, especially at the federal level, on our system of criminal justice?

What is the effect on police, at all levels, of enforcing the drug laws?
Has there been any corruption involved in the enforcement of drug laws?

What has the American war on drugs done to the country of Colombia? Are
there right-wing paramilitary terrorists operating in that country? How
many thousands of Colombians have they murdered? Has U.S. assistance to the
Colombian military been diverted to these terrorists?

Perhaps one or two of these questions might be answered in the next series
of ads sponsored by the U.S. office of drug policy.

Allen Finegold is a resident of Amarillo.