SOME NEED TO STEP UP ON DRUG ISSUE

We all are hypocrites to some degree. Pick your topic - sex, race,
religion, family relationships, business. We need a long list to
accommodate human weaknesses.

For many people, drugs and alcohol rank near the top. All too often we need
to anesthetize ourselves from the demands and problems of everyday life.

We tell ourselves we deserve a harmless diversion, a little pleasure, a way
of escaping from a world of seemingly endless conflicts, dilemmas,
exasperation and headaches. What's wrong with a little fun?

So we have as many places to buy or drink beer and liquor as we have to
pray. We have parties and public events where getting popped doesn't bother
anyone. Going to the "500?" Make sure your cooler is full.

If it's not liquid escape, there are the drugs - the pot, the pills, the
powders, from marijuana and amphetamines to cocaine and ecstasy, whose very
name promises dreamy pleasure.

For those who grew up in the 1960s and especially the '70s, marijuana was
as common as beer. When the pot smokers became parents, they had to learn
to minimize or hide these pursuits. How many budding politicians lied when
they said, "Yes, I tried marijuana, but I didn't inhale?"

We have a multi-billion dollar "war" on drugs because drugs constitute a
multi-billion dollar business in which the consumers are our friends,
neighbors, and - yes, the face in the mirror - just as much as they are
crackheads down in the inner-city. Who keeps the Colombian cocaine cartels
in business? Who buys the mega-tons of marijuana smuggled into the country?
Why are there so many meth labs? Why, around college campuses and many high
schools, are drugs as easy to get as pencils? Why are jails and prisons
crammed with drug dealers and users?

We can't solve the drug problem because we don't really have the desire or
will to solve it. Thus, it passes from generation to generation. The only
thing that changes is the variety of drugs. It gets bigger; 20 and 30 years
ago, there wasn't any OxyContin.

I once wrote of Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay that it couldn't have
been easy being the son of the late Bob Irsay.

Bob Irsay was a hard-drinking, profane, self-made man who reaped his
millions in the tough Chicago contracting business and divorced Jim's
mother after 41 years of marriage.

But perhaps it wasn't easy being Jim Irsay's father. Born in 1959 with the
proverbial silver spoon, Jim was different from his dad in the sense that
he gravitated in his teens to the culture of drugs and rock 'n' roll that
wants to kick the establishment in the seat of the pants.

Jim Irsay is a big-hearted guy who writes songs and can quote rock lyrics
by the dozens. Among his close friends is "gonzo" journalist Hunter S.
Thompson, who apparently never found a drug he wouldn't try. That Thompson
would call Irsay wilder than he was speaks volumes.

Yet when Irsay was identified recently as caught up in an investigation of
prescription drug abuse, he issued a statement saying he had been addicted
to pain killers, and called it a private matter. The statement implied he
got "hooked" after pulling a muscle on his StairMaster.

As the owner of an NFL franchise, Irsay is a very public person. As such,
he is a trustee in a sport watched by millions, including many young
people. With this visibility comes an important responsibility.

Irsay can turn what is now an embarrassment into something positive by
admitting that he, like so many others, has been caught up in the drug
whirlpool, and using his public position to urge a sane solution to a
seemingly endless dilemma.

About the same time the Irsay story broke, a suburban school released
findings of a survey of student drug use. Twenty-two percent of juniors
said they smoke pot regularly. Seventeen percent of ninth graders said they
smoke marijuana on a monthly basis.

"Only" 3 percent of sixth-graders said they smoke pot periodically.

Sixth graders are 12 years old. Instead of pot, they should be getting high
on Harry Potter.