Pubdate: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 Source: International Herald-Tribune (France) Copyright: International Herald Tribune 2001 Contact: http://www.iht.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/212 Author: David S. Broder NONE TOO SOON TO REVIEW AMERICA'S 'WAR ON DRUGS' WASHINGTON The high esteem in which former Representative Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas is held was demonstrated by the 98-to-1 Senate vote confirming him last month as the new chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration. In his four and a half years in the House of Representatives, Mr. Hutchinson, a Republican and former U.S. attorney, earned an estimable reputation as a thoughtful conservative and fair-minded advocate. He will need all his skills in his new job, for America is clearly about to embark on a long-overdue debate on the so-called war on drugs. The Drug Enforcement Agency is, as the name implies, primarily a law enforcement agency, but John Walters, President George W. Bush's choice to head the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, has been in limbo, awaiting a confirmation hearing since May. Many of the same Democrats who welcomed Mr. Hutchinson's nomination have argued that Mr. Walters's hard-line approach, emphasizing interdiction and incarceration over education and treatment, makes him the wrong choice for "drug czar." At least until Mr. Walters's fate is resolved, Mr. Hutchinson is in the hot seat on federal policy toward drugs. Over the last three decades, the United States has invested billions in fighting the scourge of drugs, and more and more serious people are questioning its effectiveness. The critics range from conservatives such as William Buckley and Governor Gary Johnson of New Mexico to an array of liberals, and they are having an impact on public opinion. While few agree with the editors of the influential British newspaper The Economist, which last month laid out at length "the case for legalizing drugs," many more are expressing their doubts about current policies. A Pew Research Center survey in February found that three out of four Americans believe "we are losing the drug war," and by a margin of 52 percent to 35 percent they agreed that drug use "should be treated as a disease, not a crime." In a recent issue of the American Prospect magazine, Peter Schrag, a California journalist, pointed to a growing trend at state level, where initiatives allowing medical use of marijuana or mandating treatment rather than jail for drug-users have been winning large public majorities. Mr. Hutchinson was evasive in his confirmation hearing on the question of sending federal agents out to arrest doctors who prescribe marijuana as a pain- and nausea-relieving agent for cancer patients and other seriously ill people, as eight states now allow. The Supreme Court held earlier this year that the feds have that authority. When Mr. Hutchinson was asked if he would use it, he said it was something on which he needed to confer with the attorney general, adding that it was important "that we do not send the wrong signal . that marijuana use is an acceptable practice." But he also applauded a bipartisan bill in the Senate that would expand funding of drug treatment, especially for prisoners and youths, and increase the number of drug courts, where judges can order nonviolent drug offenders to undergo treatment and continuing tests rather than put them in jail. Mr. Hutchinson took over his duties last week at the same time the Department of Justice bragged that more people than ever are in federal prisons on drug charges and are serving longer sentences. That report showed there were more suspects arrested in 1999 on charges involving marijuana than cocaine. A higher portion of the marijuana suspects who wound up in federal prison were simply users than was the case with any of the hard drugs. That raises obvious questions about the priorities of federal drug enforcement agents and prosecutors. No one seems to know how many people are in state prisons for simple possession of marijuana. But in 1998 those prisons held 236,800 people convicted on drug charges, 57 percent more than in 1990. The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University estimated in 1998 that 70 percent to 85 percent of all state prison inmates - - not just those convicted on drug charges - need treatment, but only 13 percent of them get it. The whole "war on drugs" cries out for re-examination. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom