IN THE WAR ON DRUGS, HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY

I HADN'T DREAMT of Jeannie in a long time, but there she was on Larry King
Live a few nights ago, discussing her 35-year-old son's death from a heroin
overdose.

Barbara Eden of the enviable flat tummy has gone from grantor of grown
men's wishes to poster girl for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

First the qualifiers and disclaimers: Ms. Eden is a lovely woman whose
heart is in the right place. She has suffered a tragic loss and wants to
help others. She noted repeatedly on Mr. King's show that she's no expert
and was offering only her own point of view.

Which was wrong in at least one important way.

Unwittingly and with anything but malice, people like Ms. Eden are part of
the drug problem because they treat users like idiots. That is, they tell
them that all drugs are equally bad, evil and harmful. From their
perspective, smoking a joint is only marginally different from shooting heroin.

Any casual user of marijuana - and most people I pass on the street have
been downwind from a joint at some point in their lives - knows this is a
lie. And there goes credibility. Throw out the bong and the hypodermic
needle if you want to, but don't insist that the two are equal instruments
of destruction, as Ms. Eden did.

Kids, with their overdeveloped baloney-sensors, know it's not true. They
know that marijuana may diminish their culinary standards and make them
temporarily fascinated by the intricate lives of ants, but they also know
that they won't necessarily be shooting heroin by sundown tomorrow.

Addicts are addicts; some, like Ms. Eden's son, may even become addicted to
steroids. But a social user of marijuana is no more likely to start
mainlining heroin than a weekend beer drinker is going to start stashing
Mad Dog in his lunchbox.

There isn't space here to outline all the arguments for and against the
legalization of some drugs, but it's clear that: drugs are easy to get; the
drug subculture thrives in part because it is forbidden and therefore
attractive; dollar for dollar, the billions we funnel into this "war" would
be better spent on education, prevention and treatment.

Would it not be better to control those substances, tax them and limit
their availability to minors, as we do with alcohol, rather than
criminalize a huge segment of the population?

The genie in the bottle is truth, and the truth is that all drugs are not
awful, evil or equally harmful. In fact, drugs are often quite a lot of
fun, which is why people consume, absorb, smoke, snort or shoot them. But
they are also dangerous to varying degrees and can wreak havoc on users,
families, friends and communities.

Truth is also this: Drug abuse is different from drug use, just as
alcoholism is different from the weekend cocktail party.

Rather than fight the abuse war from a moral, shame-on-you posture, which
doesn't work with any age, we might try a medical model that educates with
facts.

Several years ago, I interviewed Dr. Tom Ferguson, who had just written a
book called The Smoker's Book of Health. Dr. Ferguson, now an online health
guru, never condoned smoking, but acknowledged that cigarettes did some
good things for people, which is why they smoked.

Dr. Ferguson pointed out that nicotine alters brain chemistry in ways that
help improve concentration, attention and performance. Smoking also helps
some people suppress anger and anxiety and cope with stress. He began
helping smokers quit and/or live healthier lives by granting what they knew
to be true, after which he had the credibility to influence them in
positive ways.

Likewise, according to new research, marijuana helps some people with
various psychological disorders, including post-traumatic stress. In a
study just published in the British journal Nature, researchers found that
the primary active ingredient in marijuana mimics natural molecules that
help erase fearful memories, thus averting anxiety and panic attacks.

Perhaps the anxiety-reducing effect is why so many people choose to smoke
marijuana? So a better approach to curbing drug abuse might be to
acknowledge those benefits. Think of it as an investment in credibility so
that potential users tune in to the discussion on consequences that needs
to follow.

Kathleen Parker is a syndicated columnist.

Mona Charen is on vacation.