UNITED STATES IS LOSING THE WAR - THE WAR ON DRUGS

Of all the wars the United States has fought, the modern-day war at
home could be chronicled as the nation's most frustrating and dismal
failure.

It was almost two decades ago that Congress championed a national war
on drugs with the pledge America would be drug-free by 1995.

In 2003, that failed promise is long forgotten and drug abuse is worse
than ever.

Count in millions the lives broken or ended because of drug abuse.
Count in millions the families and friends who experience heartbreak
because of it.

Drugs, Crime, Death

On any given day in Lackawanna County Prison, 80- to 90-percent of the
900 inmates are there because of drug-or alcohol-related crimes. In
Pennsylvania, the statistic is 91-percent.

"If we solve the drug problem, we eliminate a large portion of the
crime problem," Lackawanna County Prison Warden Tom Gilhooley said.

And yet, field workers say, arrests make little impact on reducing
substance abuse.

Last year alone, more than 24 people died of drug overdoses in the
county. Seventeen additional deaths are under review. If tests confirm
drug abuse is the killer, it will set a record of deadly destruction
here.

But that statistic is just one piece of the disturbing picture.

Based on client information, Tony Kosydar, case manager at the
Lackawanna County Commission on Drug and Alcohol Prevention, estimates
nearly 100 deaths in the county were in some way related to drug abuse.

In fiscal year 2000-2001, the number of Lackawanna County residents
who were admitted to residential drug rehabilitation centers reached
1,763, according to the state Bureau of Drug and Alcohol Programs.

In addition, more than 250 joined The Salvation Army's rehabilitation
program. That and other programs that combine religion and or
spirituality into the program are not included in the government tally.

"Rehabilitation statistics are not good," Gilhooley said.

"Generally, people need multiple rehabilitations.

"Once a drug has got you, it's very difficult to dig your way out
because, by then, you've got serious relationship problems with
family, on the job, in school, with the police. You've got
low-esteem."

Prevention

More money, more resources and more people must focus on drug and
alcohol prevention education, he said.

"We need to raise a culture of kids who don't use drugs and alcohol
the way previous generations did," he said.

Lackawanna County's drug prevention efforts start with first-graders.
Programs address feelings, self-esteem, stress, constructive outlets,
risk factors and protective factors.

The programs have been in place more than 20 years.

Yet, drug-prevention officers Jude Villano and Joe Gillette see little
change in the number of children who succumb each year to substance
abuse.

It keeps pace with the national average, they said.

Despite laws against them, tobacco, inhalants and marijuana are just
half an hour's search away from middle-schoolers.

And in that brief amount of time, high school students can secure club
drugs, heroin and toxic combinations of the above, Gillette said.

"They know what's out there and they know the dangers. They know more
than adults do. Some see their parents using at home and think it's
normal," Villano said.

Of late, the drug prevention office is emphasizing elementary school
programs to influence children's early decisions.

"Ten years ago, we were not as focused," Gillette said. "But we know
now that once someone makes a decision to try a substance - tobacco,
alcohol, marijuana, any of it - it's very difficult to turn them around.

"They say it's like falling in love with a feeling."

Drugs of Choice

Kosydar, clinical case manager at the Lackawanna County Commission on
Drug and Alcohol Prevention, has seen a big jump in heroin and
intravenous drug abuse in the last two years.

And, in fact, after a short-term drop, the commission's tally of
heroin users placed in treatment climbed from 105 in fiscal year
1998-99 to 575 last year.

"In an overstimulated environment, people become desensitized,"
Kosydar said.

"They're seeking thrills. They're looking for the outrageous."

They're trying to block their true feelings.

Drugs of choice rise and wane.

In the 1990s, cocaine rose in popularity. Since 2000, heroin has
seduced a new generation.

But consistently, the legal drug of alcohol and the illegal drug of
marijuana remain the most abused substances, Kosydar said.

He braces for a surge in amphetamine use. It's popular again on the
West Coast. The Northeast usually follows, he said.

Drug Highway

Drug abuse in Northeastern Pennsylvania is, per capita, no greater
than in other communities of similar size, Lackawanna County District
Attorney Andy Jarbola said.

But here, unlike other areas, the drug trade is aided by a highway
infrastructure that creates easy access to larger, urban cities,
particularly New York and Philadelphia.

When the rail line to New York is restored, it will give sellers and
buyers another means of transportation. Jarbola said he intends to
meet with the railroad police well in advance of the project's start.

"When the rail line is operating, I want a drug-sniffing dog on each
trip," he said.

He does not think the economics of the area increases drug
abuse.

"Every social and economic class is affected," he said.

At Clear Brook Rehabilitation Center in Luzerne and Lackawanna
counties, director Nick Colangelo gives witness to a full range of
drug abuse issues and clients - rich and poor, scholarly and
under-educated, people bred in lavish environments and Dickensian ones.

Addiction cares not, said Colangelo, who is in his 28th year of
recovery from alcohol abuse.

"For those caught up in addictions, we must see the truth of their
lives," he said. "We must give them the hope of what their lives might
be and show them how to get there."

Drug Court

The relatively new Lackawanna County Drug Court attempts to do
that.

Every week, Judge Michael Barrasse grills drug defendants about their
goals and progress.

Most of the time, his tone is supportive.

"How are you doing?" he asks, giving the defendant a friendly smile.
"How has your week been?"

More often than not, he gets an honest answer - "I had a lot of stress
this week, judge." Or, "I messed up, judge." Or, "I missed a day of
work." Or, "I had a good week."

The judge already knows. Defendants are tested regularly for traces of
substance abuse, monitored by probation officers, given goals to
achieve and support meetings to attend.

Hours before court begins, probation officers, drug testers and the
judge pore over the details of defendants' weekly progress reports -
drug tests, job performance, attendance at support group meetings.
They know whether he was late for work, missed an appointment, showed
signs of drug use or failed to meet other goals set for him.

To be accepted into drug court, a defendant must agree to follow the
plan. Court officials must have reason to believe the defendant's
commitment to it.

Michael Kearney, widely known among local law enforcement officers for
his lengthy heroin addiction, ultimately convinced the court he wanted
to reform his life.

He is one of the drug court's early graduates and ongoing success
stories.

In court, defendants who reach milestones in their recovery get a
roomful of applause.

Ones who fail are urged to examine why they slipped backward and how
to avoid it in the future.

A number of small failures or one big one can land a defendant back in
jail.

So far, Judge Barrasse is pleased with the drug court's progress. The
goal is to reform addicts' lives rather than recycle them through the
prison system.

Lackawanna, which founded the court in January 2000, is only the third
county in Pennsylvania to try it.

The concept of a "feel-good-about-yourself " court initiated in
California. Now, Orange County Judge James Gray pitches even more
radical drug reform solutions.

'Decades of Rhetoric'

Author of "Why Our Drug Laws Fail," Judge Gray outlined his case
during speaking engagements last fall at Marywood University and
King's College.

"Everyone in the country seems to realize that what we are doing is
not working. We have had decades of rhetoric," he said.

"We have failed completely to keep (illegal drugs) out of our towns,
our streets and our kids. We can't keep them out of our prisons."

A popular county commissioner candidate in Lackawanna County fell from
grace because of a drug arrest a few years ago.

A county prison guard was arrested on drug charges last year, a
neighborhood crime watch leader orchestrated a heroin ring, and in an
unrelated case, six prison inmates tested positive for heroin this
year.

Two years ago, and with much fanfare, a Lackawanna County grand jury
investigated drugs in the schools.

Kosydar suspects the drug activity has simply moved deeper
underground.

"Look at the big picture," Judge Gray said. "Look at the harms caused
by drugs. Look at the harms caused by drug abuse - the shootings, the
overdoses."

Who Are the Winners in the War on Drugs?

"The drug lords who are collecting billions of dollars in untaxed
revenues. Our bureaucratic government which seizes only 5- to
10-percent of the quantity of illegal drugs, and yet we're pouring
money into our bureaucracies.

"Every government agency gets money to fight the war on drugs. The
agencies are addicted to the drug money," Judge Gray said.

He cites facts such as these:

Building and staffing prisons is a major growth industry.

Politicians are elected and re-elected by talking tough on crime.
"Their golden goose is drug prohibition money," he said.

The price of some illegal drugs - cocaine, for instance - has dropped
in half, but it is 60-percent stronger than it was years ago.

More civil liberties have been lost in this country because of the war
on drugs than because of anything else.

The biggest cash crop in California is marijuana.

He argues there's a racist bent to the war on drugs.

"If Caucasian children were imprisoned to the extent blacks and
Hispanics are, we would have done something to turn away from this
failed system. It's easy to put people in prison as long as it's
them," he said.

Racism, fear and empire building are at the root of many of the
country's drug laws, he said.

"We act under the guise of doing it for our children. But we are
putting our children directly in harm's way. Let's do better. We can't
do any worse. It's time we take a look at where our drug laws have
taken us."

He calls for open, honest dialogue among policy makers, law enforcers
and others.

He proposes a middle ground between decriminalization and zero
tolerance. He cites approaches that have decreased drug use and made
it safer in other countries - needle exchanges, zoning for marijuana
use and other experiments.

"We have to kill the profit in illegal drugs," Colangelo of Clear
Brook said.

He draws a picture of American policies and attitudes that send mixed
signals.

"We've poured a gabillion dollars down the drain on drug prevention
programs and prosecutions. Meanwhile, our kids watch everything we do
- - from substance abuse to corporate scandals, from government
wrongdoing to fallen public heroes.

"Isn't it time for neighborhoods and families to ask the
soul-searching questions: Is it OK for our kids to be dying because of
substance abuse? Is it OK for them to be going to prison?"

Sadly, Kosydar said, local residents deny there's much of a substance
abuse problem here.

They choose not to see it, he said.

But recognizing and confronting substance abuse are basic steps to
overcoming it. And hope has to be part of it.

"For all conditions," Colangelo said, "hope is the way you come out of
a bad situation. You have to emphasize it over and over again until
you believe it."