THERE'S NOTHING 'FUN' ABOUT THE IMPACT OF ILLEGAL DRUG USE

MY VIEW

I agree with Kathleen Parker's viewpoint ("The war on drugs is lacking
fundamental honesty,"column, Aug. 3) that much of the effort to bring down
drug abuse should be focused on prevention, education, and treatment.
Indeed, Gov. Jeb Bush's approach to cutting illegal drug use in Florida in
half identifies prevention as the strategic linchpin, supports treatment for
the addicted and balances the overall approach by cutting supplies and going
after the traffickers.

But I cannot agree with much of what she offers in her too-glib-by- half
rendition of the "truth" as to why illegal drug use is not abuse and, as she
puts it, "often quite a lot of fun." Ask the 21,000-plus children and
119,000-plus addicts in state-supported treatment services in Florida about
the "fun," or ask the hundreds of thousands more trying to get treatment,
their parents, spouses and children and the victims of their drug-induced
"choices."

By the time they are into the snorting and injecting that Parker associates
with fun, they report that their lives have become overwhelmingly miserable.
And so it seems by every measure - health, income, familial ties,
self-respect, reputation and future prospects - virtually all of which are
damaged.

While marijuana does not directly kill (as does heroin, crack, ecstasy, GHB
and the often-abused synthetic opiates such as oxycodone and hydrocodone),
it is hardly the benign drug described in her column. Addiction centers in
Florida report that up to half of the children they are treating are
addicted to marijuana. In Orlando, the major treatment centers report that
more than 50 percent of the children they treat are addicted to marijuana.

Moreover, the correlation between marijuana use and bad behavior is stark:
The more the child smokes marijuana, the more frequent the incidence of his
or her involvement in truancy, vandalism, violence, and other forms of
delinquency. Parker argues that marijuana use does not always lead directly
to other drugs and she is correct; just as drunk driving doesn't always lead
to car crashes. But the probabilities go way up - 80 times over, according
to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

And what about Parker's argument that the use of illegal drugs grows because
of the very fact that it is forbidden? This leads her to surmise that if
some were made legal but "controlled," the attraction for youth would
diminish. Alcohol and tobacco are legal for adults but illegal for children.
Yet, their usage rates by kids are three and two times, respectively, the
marijuana rates. This is hardly a reassuring sign that making marijuana
legal but "controlled" will lower youth use.

Most experts in the medical research and treatment fields (such as Dr.
Robert Dupont, author of "The Selfish Brain" and one of the nation's
foremost experts on addiction, and Dr. Mitch Rosenthal, president of Phoenix
House, the largest national treatment effort in the United States) believe
that both use and addiction will expand if harmful drugs are made legal.

As to the "medicinal" qualities of marijuana, in a seminal study, the
Institutes of Medicine clearly states that smoked marijuana is not medicine
and should not be. The Food and Drug Administration agrees.

Parker echoes the views of many a critic of the efforts to bring down
illegal drug use. She sees a "war," argues its abuses, and suggests that
decriminalization, taxation and "control" would be better. Her call is for
truth, and with that I could not agree more.

The truth is that it is the illegal drugs, not the laws that curtail their
use, that cause the greater harm. The truth is that any drug control
strategy must be balanced with elements of both demand and supply reduction,
based on reality, respectful of the human dimension and effective. That is
the Florida approach, and the data indicate it is working, much to the
advantage of both society and the individual.