Pubdate: Mon, 12 Aug 2002 Source: Tallahassee Democrat (FL) Copyright: 2002 Tallahassee Democrat. Contact: http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/democrat/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/444 Author: Jim McDonough Note: James R. McDonough is director of the state Office of Drug Control. Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1443/a09.html THERE'S NOTHING 'FUN' ABOUT THE IMPACT OF ILLEGAL DRUG USE MY VIEW I agree with Kathleen Parker's viewpoint ("The war on drugs is lacking fundamental honesty,"column, Aug. 3) that much of the effort to bring down drug abuse should be focused on prevention, education, and treatment. Indeed, Gov. Jeb Bush's approach to cutting illegal drug use in Florida in half identifies prevention as the strategic linchpin, supports treatment for the addicted and balances the overall approach by cutting supplies and going after the traffickers. But I cannot agree with much of what she offers in her too-glib-by- half rendition of the "truth" as to why illegal drug use is not abuse and, as she puts it, "often quite a lot of fun." Ask the 21,000-plus children and 119,000-plus addicts in state-supported treatment services in Florida about the "fun," or ask the hundreds of thousands more trying to get treatment, their parents, spouses and children and the victims of their drug-induced "choices." By the time they are into the snorting and injecting that Parker associates with fun, they report that their lives have become overwhelmingly miserable. And so it seems by every measure - health, income, familial ties, self-respect, reputation and future prospects - virtually all of which are damaged. While marijuana does not directly kill (as does heroin, crack, ecstasy, GHB and the often-abused synthetic opiates such as oxycodone and hydrocodone), it is hardly the benign drug described in her column. Addiction centers in Florida report that up to half of the children they are treating are addicted to marijuana. In Orlando, the major treatment centers report that more than 50 percent of the children they treat are addicted to marijuana. Moreover, the correlation between marijuana use and bad behavior is stark: The more the child smokes marijuana, the more frequent the incidence of his or her involvement in truancy, vandalism, violence, and other forms of delinquency. Parker argues that marijuana use does not always lead directly to other drugs and she is correct; just as drunk driving doesn't always lead to car crashes. But the probabilities go way up - 80 times over, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. And what about Parker's argument that the use of illegal drugs grows because of the very fact that it is forbidden? This leads her to surmise that if some were made legal but "controlled," the attraction for youth would diminish. Alcohol and tobacco are legal for adults but illegal for children. Yet, their usage rates by kids are three and two times, respectively, the marijuana rates. This is hardly a reassuring sign that making marijuana legal but "controlled" will lower youth use. Most experts in the medical research and treatment fields (such as Dr. Robert Dupont, author of "The Selfish Brain" and one of the nation's foremost experts on addiction, and Dr. Mitch Rosenthal, president of Phoenix House, the largest national treatment effort in the United States) believe that both use and addiction will expand if harmful drugs are made legal. As to the "medicinal" qualities of marijuana, in a seminal study, the Institutes of Medicine clearly states that smoked marijuana is not medicine and should not be. The Food and Drug Administration agrees. Parker echoes the views of many a critic of the efforts to bring down illegal drug use. She sees a "war," argues its abuses, and suggests that decriminalization, taxation and "control" would be better. Her call is for truth, and with that I could not agree more. The truth is that it is the illegal drugs, not the laws that curtail their use, that cause the greater harm. The truth is that any drug control strategy must be balanced with elements of both demand and supply reduction, based on reality, respectful of the human dimension and effective. That is the Florida approach, and the data indicate it is working, much to the advantage of both society and the individual. - --- MAP posted-by: Josh