Pubdate: Wed, 09 Aug 2000 Source: Financial Times (UK) Copyright: The Financial Times Limited 2000 Contact: 1 Southwark Bridge, London, SE1 9HL, UK Fax: +44 171 873 3922 Website: http://www.ft.com/ Note: Part 1 of a 4 part series World News: The Americas: Dope wars: America's unwinnable civil conflict: Since 1980 the US has spent Dollars 500bn on a battle against drugs. But today Americans still snort, sniff, smoke, inject and ingest huge amounts of illegal substances: Part 1: Battle without end: DOPE WARS: PART 1: BATTLE WITHOUT END Stephen Samuelson of Standish, Michigan, is an artist who does pastoral murals on the white brick walls of prison cell blocks. A former drug dealer, user and biker, he has so far served 32 years for crimes committed under the influence. He has a true insider's view of America's war on drugs. "It is the little guys who end up in prison," he says. "We keep the system going. We're the job security for the guards, for the lawyers, for the judges." Mr Samuelson, alongside his own victims, is among the casualties of America's longest and most intractable conflict. Since 1980, the anti- drug effort has drained an estimated Dollars 500bn (Pounds 331bn) from the treasuries of state and federal governments - much of it to lock up drug offenders. For all the money and effort, it is a fight the US seems to be losing. Experts say that hard drug use may be down from 15 years ago but Americans still snort, sniff, smoke, ingest and inject huge amounts of illegal substances. In cities and towns, drugs are as available as ever and often cost less than they did years ago. Yet the war goes on, costing the US almost Dollars 20bn this year, producing few gains and much suffering to its many victims. Some critics ask, why not declare victory and get out, as the US did in Vietnam? This series attempts to address that question through examining a few of the hundreds of programmes that comprise the war on drugs. From an office in the White House complex, General Barry McCaffrey, commander-in-chief - or "drug czar" - holds a tight rein on the activities of more than 50 agencies. He has vowed to halve drug supplies by 2007. To achieve this goal, the general sets a pace that is so "relentless, high-pressured and expedient in nature" that he is unable to retain sufficient staff, according to the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress. The general is not the first leader to set ambitious goals. In the 1960s, the UN agreed to rid the world of cocaine, heroin and marijuana in 25 years. President George Bush in 1989 promised to cut drug use by 55 per cent in the next decade. All the strategies, targets and performance measures, posted on the walls of Gen McCaffrey's office are aimed at a ubiquitous enemy. Pushers still thrive in thousands of city parks and rural towns. In New York, a popular computer game, "Dope Wars", allows players to act as "drug dealers", buying and selling as the market changes in cities around the world. Over the past 10 years, overdose fatalities have soared across the western states. While demand for some drugs has fallen, it has risen for others. Ecstasy, a party drug many young people believe is harmless, has become "the pot of our generation," said one user. The administration's campaign to wipe out illegal drugs has become the feeding trough for a sprawling collection of vested interests. Many of the lawmakers who vote for anti-drug programmes genuinely care about the toll taken on American society. But others are simply afraid to be seen as "soft" on drugs or crime. Business is generally a strong supporter of the anti-drug war - some companies because they benefit from lucrative contracts, others because they lose from the climate created by drugs. The constituency ranges from military contractors to prison guard unions to drug testing laboratories and social workers. Anticipating commercial gain, many US companies lobbied hard for increased counter-narcotics assistance to Colombia, including military hardware manufacturers and oil companies. As the nation's prison population approaches the 2m mark, the so-called "prison industrial complex", which builds, supplies and guards penitentiaries, has lobbied for a tough line on long-term incarceration. A new study by the Justice Policy Institute found one in four inmates - more than 450,000 - have been convicted of drug offences. "Drug policy has been driven more by politics than policy," said Congressman Ted Strickland, an Ohio Democrat who once worked as a prison psychologist. "The drug war has made it necessary for prisons to expand and caused the private prison industry to be born. That industry works aggressively in building prisons and getting public dollars to support them." Police and federal agents also like the drug war. Under controversial "asset forfeiture" rules, aimed at drug "king pins", they can keep a share of the profits when they seize houses, cars, boats, cash and other property of suspected drug offenders. This has produced widespread corruption and mistreatment, documented in many reports and a new book by author James Bovard, "Feeling your pain: The Explosion and Abuse of Government Power in the Clinton-Gore Years." Assets are often seized on the basis of the word of confidential informants (sometimes ex-convicts), who receive up to 25 per cent of the value of any property the government sequesters, says Mr Bovard. "The vast majority of people whose property is seized by federal agents are never formally charged with a crime." For all its cost and controversy, the drug war drew virtually no attention at the Republican convention last week, nor is it an issue on the agenda at the Democratic convention next week. But out on the streets, it is all too real. Protesters held a "shadow convention" in Philadelphia, a few miles from the Republican meeting. Mothers of the longtime incarcerated carried pictures of their daughters, holding vigils like the mothers of the "disappeared" in Argentina. Tomorrow Part 2: Crackdown on Colombia - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D