Pubdate: Sun, 13 May 2001
Source: Times Argus (VT)
Copyright: 2001 Times Argus
Contact: http://timesargus.nybor.com/Opinion/Letters/
Website: http://www.timesargus.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/893

SAME OLD DRUG FIGHT

Sixty years ago America fought a war that had widespread public support and 
achieved the lofty goal of ending tyranny in Japan and Germany. Sadly, this 
country remains deeply engaged in another war that simply soaks up scarce 
tax dollars, supports foreign corruption and stuffs our prisons full of 
non-violent criminals.

The war on drugs hasn't worked, and yet it has been embraced by one 
beleaguered presidential administration after another. The strategy might 
be understandable if there were any sign of progress toward proclaimed goals.

But where's the progress when America maintains a stunning $66 billion a 
year appetite for illegal drugs and when almost 25 percent of the nation's 
prison inmates are drug offenders?

In this kind of war, the best time to change tactics is when a new 
president moves into the White House. George W. Bush had the chance to show 
he understood his predecessors had it wrong when they relied so heavily on 
aiding Columbia and other Latin American nations in battling the outlaws 
who profit so handsomely from the export of illicit drugs to the United 
States and other consuming nations.

But this president, with his eyes firmly fixed on the rear-view mirror, is 
not one to break new ground. His idea of progress is to heed his father's 
advice to "stay the course."

Thus he seems determined to not just maintain the old strategies - with a 
costly emphasis on military interdiction and neglect of treatment for 
addicts - but to actually augment them.

First, President Bush said he would enforce a measure that prevents drug 
offenders from obtaining federal grants or loans for a college education, 
dismissing the probability that these financial aids probably would do more 
to restore these offenders to a productive life than any other tactic thus 
far advanced.

Next, he named as drug czar hard-nosed John Walters, a doctrinaire 
conservative who believes President Clinton was "too soft" on drugs. 
Walters prefers the military approach over more promising treatment programs.

Even if a full-scale military assault on drug trafficking were to put some 
producers out of business, the appetite for drugs and the marketplace 
profits would assure continued development of new sources.

The United States has been at pains to distance itself from the recent 
killing of two Americans - a 35-year-old Baptist missionary and her infant 
daughter - who were aboard a private airplane stupidly shot down by 
Peruvian anti-drug forces, but the tragedy might never have happened had we 
not been so deeply committed to attacking the production end of the drug 
cycle rather than the consumption end, where the real problem lies.

It's time for a smarter approach in Washington. Sure, some effort should be 
made to fight those who grow and sell drugs, but an even greater effort 
should be made to help potential users. Thanks to President Bush's lack of 
vision, we may be stuck with the failed illicit-drug strategy for four more 
years.
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