WAR ON DRUGS

Demand Keeps Drug Trade Alive

Citizens should cheer the law-enforcement efforts aimed at removing
illegal drugs from our streets, sidewalks and homes.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Mike Fisher, for example, recently
announced the breakup of a suspected methamphetamine ring that
covered Montour, Northumberland, Columbia and Schuylkill counties.

The charges against four men implicated by police have not been
proved, but the arrest sparks some disturbing questions.

If a gang of bathtub chemists can make $4 million selling "meth" in
rural Central Pennsylvania, that must mean there are many customers
for the illegal - and dangerous - stimulant. Officials say the
investigation is continuing and may net other suspects. But will the
arrests of dealers really get to the heart of the issue?

The problem really is not with dealers, although such harmful
criminal activities should be stopped. The first rules of economics
apply to the drug trade as much - and maybe more so - than in
legitimate and well-regulated businesses. There must be a demand for
a product to justify the supply.

Police forces focus on the supply side for many practical reasons.
Dealers are more centralized, easier to prosecute and present "high-
value" targets. Users can be anywhere and, judging by the lucrative
trade, probably are just about everywhere. The legal system does not
treat users on the same level as dealers, giving law enforcement less
incentive to attack the huge, though scattered, demand side.

So what is to be done to combat the problem?

Police should be considered the last resort when it comes to stopping
drug abuse.

Before a drug arrest can be made, every other social system had to
have failed. Families, neighborhoods, communities, schools and
health- care facilities all have a role to play in reducing abuse.

Police are there for backup. Everyone else is in the front lines.