IT'S TIME FOR NEW TACTICS IN FAILED 'WAR ON DRUGS'

Every voice raised against the "War on Drugs" is made to sound like a voice
in favor of using drugs. And yet, many of the problems of drug use are the
consequence of our misguided drug policies. Respectable people like judges,
governors and people in law enforcement, as well as the voters in several
states, are publicly coming to that conclusion.

Two years ago the Unitarian Universalist denomination launched a study of
U.S. drug policies. What have decades of prohibition, heavy jail sentences,
militarized enforcement, eradication programs in Third World countries and
massive demonization programs produced? Drug use has continued. Drug entry
points have multiplied. The huge amounts of money involved have distorted
our own political process and social institutions as well as those of the
source countries. We have the largest percentage of our population
incarcerated of any country on the planet. We have spent billions of
dollars on the so-called war on drugs. And drug use and abuse continues
unabated.

In June, the Unitarian Universalist denomination issued its report in the
form of a Statement of Conscience, passed overwhelmingly by its General
Assembly meeting in Quebec City, Canada. The statement acknowledges the
failure of current drug policy and calls for drastic change. The
alternatives to the drug war called for are based on three principles:

1) Drug abuse is a community health problem. Treating it as a law
enforcement problem has proven not to work. We recommend treatment on
demand for otherwise non-criminal drug use.

2) Get the money out of the business. Pursue policies aimed at lowering,
not raising, drug prices. This is the only way to seriously dent the drug
trade. A number of methods are worth trying. It might ultimately cost less
to simply buy up the product at the source and put the dealers out of
business. Those determined to use could be supplied from government stores
as many states now do with hard liquor. But this is the single most
important target of serious drug policy -- the obscene profits. And they
are entirely the result of prohibition.

3) Take the ideology out of drug policy. Try many things. Keep doing what
works. Stop doing what doesn't work.

Opponents say that these alternative responses "send the wrong message to
our children." Well, the numbers show that the message received has not
been the message drug warriors think they are sending. It is time to end
the farce of doing more and more of what clearly doesn't work. That is one
message we REALLY don't want to send our children.

The Rev. Mike Young, pastor of First Unitarian Church of Honolulu, attended
the June conference in Quebec.