Pubdate: Thu, 16 Mar 2006
Source: Wall Street Journal (US)
Copyright: 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.wsj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/487
Author: John Walters
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n229/a09.html?302493
Note: John Walters Director White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy Washington
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/walters.htm (Walters, John)

UTOPIA OF LEGALIZED DRUGS IS A DELUSION

George Melloan, in his Feb. 21 Global View "Musings About the War on
Drugs" and some of the March 7 Letters in response ("Our Unwinnable
War -- Against Drugs," March 7) propose new thinking about whether
drugs should be legalized, but in the end offer a rehash from
libertarians of yesteryear. Arguments that drug prohibition has failed
depend upon two points. The first accepts that drug use damages the
social fabric, but insists that more damage follows from the
prohibition itself. The second argues that drug prohibition doesn't
even have the virtue of achieving its goal. After all, some people
still use drugs, traffickers still make profits and fighting back
against drugs means that there is, well, a fight, producing violence.
Hence, our policy should accommodate the fact of drug use.

Against the argument for accommodation, I make three points: 1) First,
there is no realistic alternative to the fight. Illegal drugs are
inherently dangerous, corrupting and incompatible with health and
freedom. The utopian world of regulated, inexpensive, readily
available (but somehow scarcely used) methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine
and marijuana is a cruel delusion. Consider that Americans already
suffer from the abuse of prescription narcotic medicines, which are
highly regulated, yet are the second-leading drug problem in the country.

Second, fighting back against illegal drugs has staved off a worse
circumstance, with many more drug users, and more ensuing damage to
the social fabric. Were the laws abandoned, drug trafficking and use
would be less risky, making drugs cheaper and more available. The
result would be an increase in demand for addictive substances that
trap their users. The number seeking help for their disease of
addiction would diminish, and the bright line of deterrence for an
emerging generation would fade.

Third, drug prohibition is not futile, but has been demonstrably
effective across a spectrum of drug threats. We have adopted a
balanced strategy that emphasizes prevention and treatment, and backed
up that strategy with dollars and effective programs. But equally
essential have been our efforts to reduce the supply of illegal drugs.
The consequence of those efforts is a largely untold story of dramatic
impact.

Current drug use by young Americans has dropped by 19% since 2001.
That means 700,000 fewer youth being poisoned and potentially lost to
addiction. Effective policies have made a difference, as have the laws
against drug use.

The fight against illegal drugs represents an international
undertaking, bound by treaties and shared commitments. While it is
dismaying to know that more than 4,000 metric tons of opium (an
estimated 87% of world supply) was produced in war-ridden Afghanistan
last year, few critics acknowledge that world opium production once
stood at 30,000 metric tons. Today, the countries of the Golden
Triangle are virtually opium-free, while opium cultivation in Colombia
has plummeted 67% since 2001.

Coca cultivation, limited to three nations in the Andes, has fallen
more than 30% in the past five years. As a result, Colombia has been
revived as a land of improving human rights, the rule of law and
prosperity. That is, a nation nearly broken by narco-terrorists now
has a positive future, because it would not give in to
narco-corruption and violence.

Moreover, the impact of these efforts on the streets of America is
encouraging. In 2004, we saw a 22% drop in the retail-level purity of
South American heroin, and evidence of a 15% decline in cocaine purity
for the first three quarters of 2005, along with corresponding
increases in their respective prices.

John Walters Director White House Office of National Drug Control
Policy Washington
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MAP posted-by: Derek