Pubdate: Fri, 08 Mar 2002 Source: Northwest Arkansas Times (AR) Copyright: 2002 Community Publishers Inc. Contact: http://www.nwarktimes.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/828 Author: Charley Reese CHANGES NEEDED TO SOLVE THE DRUG PROBLEM National Perspectives Let's talk about the drug problem, which has been the object of America's phony war on drugs dating back to the Nixon administration. First, forget about Colombians, Afghans, Burmese, Mexicans or any other foreign suppliers. They aren't the problem. They are supplying product to meet a demand, and the demand -- 100 percent American in its origin, for our purposes -- is our drug problem. Demand in other countries is their drug problem. If there w were no demand, there would be no supply. Why, then, do Americans take these drugs? The answer is simple. At first, they take them because the drugs make them feel good. Later, they take them because they are addicted. Reducing demand will require two strategies: education to prevent as many first-time users as possible from becoming addicted, and rehabilitation for addicts. Unfortunately, the present administration, like its predecessors, prefers to spend money on jails, guns and soldiers rather than on rehabilitation. It thinks that silly ads, squeezed into blank spots on TV schedules, can do the education. Colombia gets billions of dollars to shoot people. Tens of thousands of addicts in America have no affordable rehabilitation facilities. Doesn't make sense. The first step, if we ever become serious about this, is to ban all pharmaceutical advertising. Remember, people take drugs to feel good. What is the message in all of the billions of dollars worth of pharmaceutical advertising? "Feel bad? Take our drugs. You'll feel better." It is the manufacturers of legal drugs who create the climate that makes selling the illegal drugs easier. From childhood on, Americans are bombarded with messages that follow the same pattern. First, frowns and suffering. Then the drug pitch. Then happy, smiling faces. One message: Drugs can make you feel good. It's the same for cocaine as it is for headache, arthritis and you-name-it other drugs. If the government can ban tobacco advertising, and it already has, then it can certainly ban drug advertising. These drug ads are designed to persuade people to pressure their doctors into prescribing the drugs. Some doctors have already complained about the tactic. Let the media moguls howl. We will never reduce demand for illegal drugs in a society saturated with the idea that taking drugs will make you feel good. Like the rose, a drug is a drug is a drug. The second step is the hardest for most people to accept, and that's to legalize the drugs. It is the fact that the government bans them that creates the crime. The exact same thing happened when the government banned alcohol. Criminal gangs are created to supply product for which there is a demand. They fight among themselves. They bribe government officials. Noncriminals are made criminals for using the drugs. Fortunes are made both by suppliers and by corrupt officials. And don't kid yourself. No one can run a multimillion- dollar retail business without corrupting officials. If the customers can find the drugs, so can the cops, so if you have a big drug problem in your community, you also have a corrupt government problem in your community. Cocaine, marijuana and opium are all easy to grow. They are practically weeds. It is only because the government bans their sale that the price is so high, the profit margins so enormous. And the financial incentive for the government is very high. Not only do the black-market products generate enough profits to pay for the bribes, the problem allows the government to expand its power, buy more guns and prison cells and inflate its own importance. If legalization is too much for you to handle, then at least let us insist that the government provide 10 beds in rehab centers for every one bed in prison. It really is a disgrace that we have more people in prison than any other country on Earth. I refuse to believe that Americans are by nature any more lawless than other people. It is equally disgraceful that poor and lower-income addicts simply can't afford rehabilitation. Let us also offer our children factual, scientific information about drugs rather than these silly fried egg commercials and slogans. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom