Pubdate: Fri, 24 Nov 2000
Source: Salt Lake Tribune (UT)
Copyright: 2000 The Salt Lake Tribune
Contact:  143 S Main, Salt Lake City UT 84111
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Author: Robyn Blumner, The St. Petersburg Times

OUR COSTLY, DESTRUCTIVE 'DRUG WAR' REMAINS UNWINNABLE

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Having announced he will leave office in January,
White House Drug Czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey is patting himself on the back as
he heads for the exit. Says McCaffrey: "I'm enormously proud of what we've
done."

Those who have watched his four-year reign can't help but wonder: What would
make him so proud? Richard Nixon was proud of bombing Cambodia, but the
results were much the same -- a lot of death and ruin for not much societal
gain.

The drug war today is as hopelessly unwinnable and deeply destructive as it
was when the White House Office of National Drug Control was created in
1988.

Despite having locked up nearly a half-million citizens for drug-related
crimes -- a seven-fold increase since 1980 -- illegal drugs are still cheap
and easy to come by. The federal government now spends $18 billion annually
to fight this war, compared with $1.65 billion in 1982. Yet even with
spending twice as much on interdiction and enforcement as we spend on
treatment and prevention, our borders are still a giant sieve and drug use
has not appreciably fallen.

During his tenure, McCaffrey talked a good game about getting at the demand
side. He denounced the highly punitive Rockefeller drug laws in New York and
spoke of drug addiction as a cancer in need of treatment. But his rhetoric
and his actions have been as different as Dr. Strangelove and Mr. Hyde.

We still spend an overwhelming proportion of our drug-fighting money on
trying to control supply, which has meant militarizing domestic police,
sacrificing civil liberties for "the cause" and intervening in the internal
affairs of nations that are source countries or money-laundering havens.

In one of McCaffrey's worst moves, he recently pushed Congress to send $1.3
billion in mostly military aid to Colombia in order to back up the
government's fight against leftist rebels and allegedly also against
right-wing paramilitary death squads that are funding their civil conflict
with drug profits. The quagmire has all the markings of another Vietnam and
will ultimately be equally senseless. Drug profits are so astronomical that
there is always a balloon effect: When coca production is suppressed in one
country, drug traffickers simply move to another.

In recent weeks, McCaffrey's treatment-hugging rhetoric was put to the test
and failed. California's Proposition 36 mandated treatment rather than
prison for non-violent first- and second-time drug offenders. McCaffrey
predictably opposed the measure, yet 61 percent of the electorate disagreed,
saying they have had enough of jailing people with an addiction problem.

But where his actions are most unforgivable is his willingness to sacrifice
the health and even the lives of thousands of Americans by averting his eyes
to the truth.

McCaffrey blocked funding of needle-exchange programs when even Donna
Shalala, secretary of Health and Human Services, said they work. In 1998
Shalala said: "A meticulous scientific review has now proven that
needle-exchange programs can reduce the transmission of HIV and save lives
without losing ground in the battle against illegal drugs." McCaffrey was
unmoved despite evidence that more than 75 percent of U.S. babies with HIV
got that way due to injection drug use by a parent.

Then there's McCaffrey's near-hysterical response to the potential medicinal
benefits of marijuana. Eight states have now passed voter initiatives
approving medical marijuana and a recent Institute of Medicine report
commissioned by McCaffrey said the drug shows signs of being helpful for a
host of medical conditions, including offering some relief to chemotherapy
patients and AIDS sufferers.

McCaffrey has pretty much ignored the study's findings and continues to use
his power to keep seriously ill patients from getting a treatment that can
reduce their suffering. In 1996, he even threatened to go after doctors'
prescription-writing licenses if they recommend marijuana to patients. A
lawsuit filed on free speech grounds finally beat him back.

And speaking of free speech, McCaffrey used his office to surreptitiously
insert anti-drug messages into popular television programs such as "Beverly
Hills 90210" and "E.R." As a way to avoid having to give expensive air time
free for anti-drug public service announcements, some networks agreed to
make McCaffrey a script supervisor. When the scheme was uncovered, McCaffrey
couldn't understand the backlash over his cultural control program and
suggested expanding it to the movies.

McCaffrey says he's leaving to write a book and possibly go back to
college-level teaching. For those of us looking for a leader with the
courage to act sensibly toward the nation's drug problem, we won't be sorry
to see this old soldier fade away.
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