MONITOR BREAKFAST: JOHN P. WALTERS

Source: Christian Science Monitor (US)

Selected Quotations From A Monitor Breakfast With John P. Walters,
Director Of The US Office Of National Drug Control Policy.

On how the war on terrorism affects drug control efforts:

"You hear different opinions about this. The reason you hear different
opinions is that we don't have perfect knowledge of what is actually
flowing so sometimes it is hard to tell the difference on the street level
for some period of time because there is a certain amount in the pipeline.
...We certainly don't see reports immediately after Sept. 11 of critical
shortages on the street which would be an immediate and most prominent
indicator. We have seen more seizures at the border we also have seen more
seizures at airports because of increased airport security. And I think
there is a general consensus -- although there is always a debate about
these things -- that there is less effort to move drugs through the airport
because of tighter security and some border areas...But what we are trying
to do is integrate what we are doing with the changes in homeland security
so we get a little more stable and consistent interdiction effort along the
borders."

On success of ads that say buying drugs supports terrorism:

"We did extensive focus group testing - more than any of the more than 200
kinds of ads that have been part of the ad campaign since its inception. We
found that it had an extremely powerful effect on both young people, young
adults, and parents. We didn't expect parents - parents talked about how
this would be an important and powerful way to talk to the young people.
The dimension that I think is important here is that we have done a lot of
ads taking about the harm drugs do to you. Young people have some concern
about their well being but they are at an age where the feel more
invulnerable sometimes. So these ads appeal to their idealism -what do you
want to be seeing in the world. "

On the president's drug message during his trip next week to Latin America:

"In order to effectively control drug production in this hemisphere, we
have to stimulate other economic growth and growth in the producing
countries. We are doing more to destabilize illicit trade in places like
Columbia ....we can't successfully create and expand the kind of
partnership we need to have in the region if we are not going to expand
trade. We understand that the drug control policy and our cooperation with
them on fighting drugs and drug organizations is ongoing. But the
concomitant part of that for bringing poor farmers and developing those
countries and their democratic institutions is economic development, and
that is what the president is going to focus on."

On the most important part of the US anti-drug effort:

"Prevention, no question. It is the most cost effective thing to do because
we know from long research that if young people do not start experimenting
with drugs in their teen aged years, they are unlikely to have a substance
abuse problem later on. They are unlikely to start later on. So if you want
to talk about how we inoculate people from the drug problem, keep young
people from experimenting with drugs during their teenage years. That has
the effect of reducing the number of people who are dependent and need
treatment, it reduces the crime associated with the drug market, and all
the other collateral harms. The challenge in that area is that it requires
not just a specific government program to do something, but it requires
enlisting the country as a whole..."

On whether enough drug treatment is available:

"The reason the president has called for the unprecedented increase in
treatment spending is because we don't think we have enough services at
this point. What we also know is we haven't done a good enough job of
putting treatment where the need is and that is one of the things we are
doing - the way we are applying these resources... We know that drug
addition is not distributed on the basis of population, it has places of
focus. So we have another program... that is based on demonstrated need and
the ability to meet that need..."

On the nature of drug offenders in prison:

"There has been a considerable disservice done by (those who say that)
there are a lot of low level, non-violent offenders. I believe that any
serious look at the prison population... (that takes into account
prisoners' prior records, would reveal that) the vast majority of those
incarcerated in state institutions are violent of repeat offenders of a
serious enough nature to deserve the imprisonment. It is not a matter of
some kid caught with a baggie of marijuana at a traffic stop who got
slammed into prison. That is a caricature that I think it is about time we
stopped repeating because it is so blatantly not true."

On why drugs should be illegal:

"The reason that drugs are illegal is because of the harm they do to
individuals particularly. I would think the sensitivity here is because of
the harm they do to individuals in a democratic society - that they take
away the ability of individuals to act as free, responsible citizens. Their
lives collapse down to drug use. That is what drug addiction is really
about, that is what drug legalization is about... As I said, 25 percent of
the people in the country who are substance dependent are teenagers. We
have never had that rate of young people. So to present this as 30
year-olds who are going to have fun on the weekend and who cares what they
do with themselves is not the reality of drug addiction in this country."