Pubdate: Tue, 12 Sep 2000
Source: Gloucester Daily Times (MA)
Copyright: 2000 Essex County Newspapers, Incorporated.
Contact:  http://www.gloucestertimes.com/
Author: Jim Munn
Bookmark: additional articles on heroin are available at 
http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm  and articles on cocaine are available at 
http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm

DAMPENING DEMAND FOR DRUGS

Is the news getting crazier all the time or has old age finally ossified 
what little is left of my brain? In last Friday's Globe, I read that an 
anti-drug unit of the Colombian National Police had found a half-completed 
submarine during a routine raid on a warehouse 18 miles west of Bogota.

According to police officials, the 100-foot, double-hulled sub, once 
completed, could travel at a depth of 100 meters while carrying more than 
200 tons of cocaine. The most likely destination for such a payload? The 
United States, of course, easily the world's No. 1 consumer for every kind 
of mind-or mood-altering drug known to man.

Last week's startling discovery came directly on the heels of President 
Clinton's visit to Colombia, where deep divisions over the nation's illegal 
drug industry have resulted in a 40-year civil war.

Colombia currently exports more than 500 tons of cocaine a year. That 
represents about 80 percent of the world's annual supply. During the 
president's recent visit, Clinton pledged another $1.3 billion to help the 
Colombian government put a lid on the nation's highly lucrative drug business.

Unfortunately, some of that aid will likely find its way into the hands of 
leftist guerrillas and right-wing paramilitary groups, both of whom are 
suspected of having long profited from the cocaine trade.

Whether earlier aid from Washington helped in the construction of the 
$200-million sub found last week in the outskirts of Bogota, remains a 
matter of speculation. What is known, however, is that the discovery 
represents an escalation in the methodology used to deliver cocaine and 
other illegal drugs to the American marketplace.

According to the Globe report, the more traditional methods of smuggling 
illegal drugs into the United States include "swallowing drug-packed latex 
capsules or hiding narcotics in false-bottom suitcases, the lining of 
clothes, hollowed-out books, or the soles or heels of shoes."

Drug traffickers have also been known to conceal cocaine and heroin "in the 
intestinal tracts of animals, in musical instruments, food, cement posts, 
pre-colonial sculptures, the handles of shoe-polish brushes, children's 
toys, prosthetics, and in silicone bags sewn into cadavers and even 
surgically inserted into a woman's thighs."

All of which only goes to demonstrate that when it comes to making a buck, 
you just can't underestimate human inventiveness.

It would be interesting to know how much Washington, state and local 
government spend each year on drug-related programs. Whatever the price 
tag, it seems the more the nation spends on the anti-drug effort, both at 
home and abroad, the worse the problem becomes.

Again, it is the old story of supply and demand. Apparently, there is an 
enormous craving in this country for drugs like ecstasy, cocaine, LSD and 
heroin. Cocaine, it must be remembered, was all but legitimized back in the 
1970s, when trendy New York disco clubs began openly serving the drug to 
the popular culture's celebrity-elite clientele.

Soon even suburban housewives and college coeds were flocking to urban 
street corners to obtain their little packets of the magical white powder. 
But not to worry. One should never mistake the actions of well-heeled 
suburbanites with the lifestyle choices of those born to live and die on 
the mean streets of the American ghetto.

To the former, the willingness to "do drugs" was always considered a 
"recreational" matter, whereas to the latter, drug use was usually regarded 
as a sure path to addiction, crime and premature death.

It has always amazed me how so many privileged Americans can so easily take 
part in an activity that has resulted in so much pain and suffering for so 
many people for so long and in so many parts of the world. It would be 
impossible to place a figure on the number of assaults, murders, suicides 
and other acts of violence that could be directly attributed to the 
international drug trade.

Think of the crime, the untold number of human tragedies, the trillions of 
dollars wasted on self-destructive human behavior.

Recently it was revealed that Massachusetts' youth lead the nation in the 
consumption of illegal drugs. Despite the record amounts currently being 
spent on anti-drug programs, more people are using illegal drugs in America 
than ever before and at an ever-earlier age.

But I do not entirely blame the foreign drug cartels or even the dealers 
here at home. It is the individual citizen who is ultimately responsible 
for perpetuating this national disgrace, along with both state and federal 
officials, few of whom have shown any real leadership in dealing with the 
problem.

More and bigger prisons are not the answer. So long as growing numbers of 
ordinary citizens choose to incorporate drugs like cocaine and heroin into 
their lives, there will be those willing to meet the resulting demand.

Instead, society must work toward the elimination of its current craving 
for such mind- and mood-altering agents. Only then will the supply-side 
source begin to dry up. That is the best and only real weapon in fighting 
the war against drugs: a lack of demand, something that rests in the hands 
of each and every citizen.
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MAP posted-by: Thunder