Pubdate: Sun, 23 Aug 1998 Source: Centre Daily Times (PA) Contact: http://www.centredaily.com/ Author: Keith Brilhart DRUG WAR ANSWERS THE WRONG QUESTIONS The writer is a State College native with bachelor's degrees in philosophy and food science. For eight years, he worked in Baltimore for a Dutch company. Lately there has been considerable debate over drug issues, including medical marijuana, the war on drugs, date rape drugs and so forth. With all of the debate and news stories, there are precious few facts and little reflection. Advocates of various positions have polarized public opinion, with anti-drug messages getting far greater time. In this situation, I'd like to offer a few thoughts, and consider some questions. According to Dr. Jeffrey A. Schaler, in "Drugs: Should We Legalize, Decriminalize, or Deregulate?", there are three points of view: prohibitionists, public health advocates and liberals or libertarians. Each makes their claims, each should be considered and each should own up to facts. I will try to paraphrase Dr. Schaler's descriptions faithfully, but recommend that anyone seeking to further explore this issue go to the library and seek this or any of a number of other unbiased books. Prohibitionists argue for strict laws, and rationalize their position with claims that drugs do harm to the user and others. When confronted with assertions that a drug like marijuana is harmless, they claim that it is a "gateway drug" leading to the use of more dangerous drugs. Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the current drug czar, has lied in his recent statement that Holland, where marijuana is legal, has higher murder rates and marijuana use rates than the United States. The Dutch government was insulted, and asked for a retraction because of his false statements. He refused. We should ask whether prohibition works, whether drugs themselves cause crime and whether prohibition causes crime (remember Al Capone, et al.). Public health advocates regard addiction as a disease, and thus advocate treatment over punishment. Some support medical marijuana laws. Baltimore's Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke was the most visible of these people. We should ask if drug treatment works, whether medical control would eradicate the black market and whether court-ordered drug treatment, being of a moral and often religious nature, violates First Amendment rights. In the liberal and libertarian perspectives (re: psychiatrist Thomas Szasz and economist Milton Friedman), drug use is seen as a behavior based on personal values. Some say it is caused by environment, that drugs themselves do not cause crime and that, according to Schaler, "drug users need not be treated as 'barbarians at the gate' requiring exceptions to the constitutional rule of law." They believe that free-market trade would reduce crime. We should consider if there will be a substantial increase in usage if drugs are legalized, whether increased use would lead to greater threats to freedom and what effects this might have on relations with prohibitionist countries. I think it is silly that we have a working example in Holland that is studiously ignored by our government. They have lower drug usage rates, lower murder rates and lower costs of enforcement. Furthermore, people there are compromising and solving real problems. Isn't that what America is about? The drug war makes our country look more like Stalinist Russia than the United States. Let's have a real dialogue, and then make our representatives in government listen and lead for a change. - --- Checked-by: Patrick Henry