JOHN WALTERS DOES THE DRUG CZAR DANCE PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE DrugSense FOCUS Alert #327 - Friday, 17 March 2006 Federal Drug Czar John Walters mustered together one of his semi-annual OPED efforts at a national level with Thursday's publication in The Wall Street Journal. His ire was obviously stimulated by a Feb 22 WSJ opinion piece penned by Deputy Editor for International Affairs George Melloan which contained a lengthy list of provocative criticisms of the modern day Prohibition - the War on Drugs. http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n229/a09.html?302768 Additionally, the WSJ ran three strong Letters to the Editor on Mar 2 endorsing Melloan's observations, penned by a regular citizen and also two retired police officers with long experience fighting the futile and ineffectual drug war. http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n287/a05.html?302768 http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n287/a07.html?302768 http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n287/a08.html?302768 In a one-man rebuttal to all of the above smart messages, Walters scoffs at a "regulated" system of drug distribution, citing problems related to the accepted system of production and distribution used for pharmaceutical drugs. And of course he lumps all illicit drugs under one descriptive umbrella - "...inherently dangerous, corrupting and incompatible with health and freedom", again implying that "legal" drugs are by their nature non-dangerous, non-corrupting and compatible with health and freedom. He ignores that our most commonly abused drugs - alcohol, tobacco and narcotic pharmaceuticals - are not left to street dealers, but are instead licensed and regulated. And finally he trumpets supposed recent successes in Afghanistan and Colombia as evidence that the drug war is working. This despite other released reports from his own Office of National Drug Control Policy just the past month which show that illegal drug trafficking remains at consistent and constant levels both domestically and internationally. In short, Mr. Walters is doing the Drug Czar Dance we've come to expect from the ONDCP. Tell us how great it's all going, while any American citizen can look around their community and see that illicit drugs are readily available and that all of the production and distribution is left in control of unregulated, unlicensed drug dealers and too often - criminal gangs. Please consider writing a succinct Letter to the Editor (200 words or less is best) and sending it to the Wall Street Journal this weekend. Thanks for your effort and support. It's not what others do it's what YOU do Contact: US: OPED: Utopia Of Legalized Drugs Is A Delusion URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06.n321.a05.html Pubdate: Thu, 16 Mar 2006 Source: Wall Street Journal (US) Copyright: 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Contact: Website: http://www.wsj.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/487 Author: John Walters Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n229/a09.html?302493 Note: John Walters Director White House Office of National Drug Control Policy Washington Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/walters.htm (Walters, John) UTOPIA OF LEGALIZED DRUGS IS A DELUSION George Melloan, in his Feb. 21 Global View "Musings About the War on Drugs" and some of the March 7 Letters in response ("Our Unwinnable War -- Against Drugs," March 7) propose new thinking about whether drugs should be legalized, but in the end offer a rehash from libertarians of yesteryear. Arguments that drug prohibition has failed depend upon two points. The first accepts that drug use damages the social fabric, but insists that more damage follows from the prohibition itself. The second argues that drug prohibition doesn't even have the virtue of achieving its goal. After all, some people still use drugs, traffickers still make profits and fighting back against drugs means that there is, well, a fight, producing violence. Hence, our policy should accommodate the fact of drug use. Against the argument for accommodation, I make three points: 1) First, there is no realistic alternative to the fight. Illegal drugs are inherently dangerous, corrupting and incompatible with health and freedom. The utopian world of regulated, inexpensive, readily available (but somehow scarcely used ) methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine and marijuana is a cruel delusion. Consider that Americans already suffer from the abuse of prescription narcotic medicines, which are highly regulated, yet are the second-leading drug problem in the country. Second, fighting back against illegal drugs has staved off a worse circumstance, with many more drug users, and more ensuing damage to the social fabric. Were the laws abandoned, drug trafficking and use would be less risky, making drugs cheaper and more available. The result would be an increase in demand for addictive substances that trap their users. The number seeking help for their disease of addiction would diminish, and the bright line of deterrence for an emerging generation would fade. Third, drug prohibition is not futile, but has been demonstrably effective across a spectrum of drug threats. We have adopted a balanced strategy that emphasizes prevention and treatment, and backed up that strategy with dollars and effective programs. But equally essential have been our efforts to reduce the supply of illegal drugs. The consequence of those efforts is a largely untold story of dramatic impact. Current drug use by young Americans has dropped by 19% since 2001. That means 700,000 fewer youth being poisoned and potentially lost to addiction. Effective policies have made a difference, as have the laws against drug use. The fight against illegal drugs represents an international undertaking, bound by treaties and shared commitments. While it is dismaying to know that more than 4,000 metric tons of opium (an estimated 87% of world supply) was produced in war-ridden Afghanistan last year, few critics acknowledge that world opium production once stood at 30,000 metric tons. Today, the countries of the Golden Triangle are virtually opium-free, while opium cultivation in Colombia has plummeted 67% since 2001. Coca cultivation, limited to three nations in the Andes, has fallen more than 30% in the past five years. As a result, Colombia has been revived as a land of improving human rights, the rule of law and prosperity. That is, a nation nearly broken by narco-terrorists now has a positive future, because it would not give in to narco-corruption and violence. Moreover, the impact of these efforts on the streets of America is encouraging. In 2004, we saw a 22% drop in the retail-level purity of South American heroin, and evidence of a 15% decline in cocaine purity for the first three quarters of 2005, along with corresponding increases in their respective prices. Pubdate: Thu, 16 Mar 2006 Source: Wall Street Journal (US) Copyright: 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Contact: Website: http://www.wsj.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/487 Author: John Walters Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n229/a09.html Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/walters.htm (Walters, John) URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06.n321.a05.html Additional suggestions for writing LTEs are at our Media Activism Center: http://www.mapinc.org/resource/ Or contact MAP Media Activism Facilitator Steve Heath for personal tips on how to write LTEs that get printed. PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER Please post a copy of your letter or report your action to the sent letter list () if you are subscribed, or by E-mailing a copy directly to if you are not subscribed. Your letter will then be forwarded to the list so others can learn from your efforts. Subscribing to the Sent LTE list () will help you to review other sent LTEs and perhaps come up with new ideas or approaches as well as keeping others aware of your important writing efforts. To subscribe to the Sent LTE mailing list see http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm#form Prepared by: Stephen Heath, MAP Media Activism Facilitator =.

Focus Alert Archive