CHANGES NEEDED TO SOLVE THE DRUG PROBLEM

National Perspectives

Let's talk about the drug problem, which has been the object of America's
phony war on drugs dating back to the Nixon administration.

First, forget about Colombians, Afghans, Burmese, Mexicans or any other
foreign suppliers. They aren't the problem. They are supplying product to
meet a demand, and the demand -- 100 percent American in its origin, for
our purposes -- is our drug problem. Demand in other countries is their
drug problem.

If there w were no demand, there would be no supply. Why, then, do
Americans take these drugs? The answer is simple. At first, they take them
because the drugs make them feel good. Later, they take them because they
are addicted. Reducing demand will require two strategies: education to
prevent as many first-time users as possible from becoming addicted, and
rehabilitation for addicts.

Unfortunately, the present administration, like its predecessors, prefers
to spend money on jails, guns and soldiers rather than on rehabilitation.
It thinks that silly ads, squeezed into blank spots on TV schedules, can do
the education. Colombia gets billions of dollars to shoot people. Tens of
thousands of addicts in America have no affordable rehabilitation facilities.

Doesn't make sense.

The first step, if we ever become serious about this, is to ban all
pharmaceutical advertising. Remember, people take drugs to feel good. What
is the message in all of the billions of dollars worth of pharmaceutical
advertising? "Feel bad? Take our drugs. You'll feel better."

It is the manufacturers of legal drugs who create the climate that makes
selling the illegal drugs easier. From childhood on, Americans are
bombarded with messages that follow the same pattern. First, frowns and
suffering. Then the drug pitch. Then happy, smiling faces. One message:
Drugs can make you feel good. It's the same for cocaine as it is for
headache, arthritis and you-name-it other drugs.

If the government can ban tobacco advertising, and it already has, then it
can certainly ban drug advertising. These drug ads are designed to persuade
people to pressure their doctors into prescribing the drugs. Some doctors
have already complained about the tactic. Let the media moguls howl. We
will never reduce demand for illegal drugs in a society saturated with the
idea that taking drugs will make you feel good.

Like the rose, a drug is a drug is a drug.

The second step is the hardest for most people to accept, and that's to
legalize the drugs. It is the fact that the government bans them that
creates the crime. The exact same thing happened when the government banned
alcohol. Criminal gangs are created to supply product for which there is a
demand. They fight among themselves. They bribe government officials.
Noncriminals are made criminals for using the drugs. Fortunes are made both
by suppliers and by corrupt officials. And don't kid yourself. No one can
run a multimillion- dollar retail business without corrupting officials. If
the customers can find the drugs, so can the cops, so if you have a big
drug problem in your community, you also have a corrupt government problem
in your community.

Cocaine, marijuana and opium are all easy to grow. They are practically
weeds. It is only because the government bans their sale that the price is
so high, the profit margins so enormous. And the financial incentive for
the government is very high. Not only do the black-market products generate
enough profits to pay for the bribes, the problem allows the government to
expand its power, buy more guns and prison cells and inflate its own
importance.

If legalization is too much for you to handle, then at least let us insist
that the government provide 10 beds in rehab centers for every one bed in
prison. It really is a disgrace that we have more people in prison than any
other country on Earth. I refuse to believe that Americans are by nature
any more lawless than other people. It is equally disgraceful that poor and
lower-income addicts simply can't afford rehabilitation.

Let us also offer our children factual, scientific information about drugs
rather than these silly fried egg commercials and slogans.