Pubdate: Thu, 26 Apr 2012
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Copyright: 2012 Houston Chronicle Publishing Company Division, Hearst Newspaper
Contact:  http://www.chron.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/198
Author: Bill King

FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES FOR DRUG POLICY REFORM

Bill King says investing in research may be the best approach to 
finding a way to rid our society of the bane of addiction and illegal 
drug abuse.

In everything I have read about U.S. drug policy over the last 
several months, with the exception of a few people who make a living 
from the War on Drugs, virtually no one thinks what we are currently 
doing is working. Polling consistently shows that about 70 percent of 
Americans agree. It seems that it is only a matter of time before we 
try a different approach.

A detailed plan is far beyond the scope of this column or your 
columnist's expertise. However, if we are to have a more effective 
drug policy, there would appear to be a few fundamental principles 
upon which a new policy should be based.

The goal of the policy should be to reduce drug abuse and addiction. 
Make no mistake, drug abuse and addiction (including alcohol and 
tobacco abuse) are a bane of mankind. If we could wave a magic wand 
and make every recreational drug disappear, we would all be better 
off. But recreational drug use goes back as far as we have recorded 
history. It is not going to magically disappear. However, we should 
never allow that inevitability to lead us to the conclusion that we 
should just throw up our hands and give in to unrestricted drug use 
and distribution. First and foremost, our policy should always be 
focused on mitigating the monstrous cost that abuse and addiction 
inflict on our species.

Children must be prevented from starting drug use. The research 
clearly shows that most addiction begins at a young age, when our 
brains are still developing critical decision-making skills. Young 
people, for the most part, simply are not prepared to weigh the risks 
of the potentially life-altering decision about whether to use drugs. 
And again by drugs, I am including alcohol and tobacco. While it 
appears that the criminal enforcement of drug laws has been largely 
ineffective and in some ways counterproductive, the one exception I 
would make is for any adult providing drugs to an adolescent. Anyone 
who does should be subject to swift, sure and severe punishment.

All drugs are not the same. Different drugs have very different 
effects on us. Therefore, we need a nuanced policy that reflects 
these differences. As a general proposition, we should impose greater 
restrictions on the more dangerous drugs. As simple as that 
proposition may sound, our current policy is far from it. For 
example, tobacco and alcohol are responsible for 20 times more deaths 
than all illegal drugs combined. Yet we impose minimal restrictions 
on tobacco and alcohol.

The most glaring example of this disparity, however, is the treatment 
of marijuana. Some estimate that 80 percent of the War on Drugs is 
devoted to stopping marijuana trafficking. But the deleterious 
effects of marijuana pale by comparison to tobacco or alcohol. There 
has yet to be a single recorded death from an overdose of marijuana. 
Marijuana is also much less frequently involved in incidental 
criminal behavior than alcohol because it induces passivity in the 
user, while alcohol reduces inhibition and encourages risky behaviors.

The hypocrisy implicit when we base our drug policies on societal 
biases rather than an objective scientific assessment of the risks 
undermines the moral authority of society to regulate drug use at all.

Invest in research. If there is ever to be a final solution to the 
drug problem, it will come from medical breakthroughs on how we treat 
addiction. Already, there are medicines that block the effects of 
alcohol and cocaine, but must be taken daily, which an addict is 
unlikely to do. But there has also been some promising research on 
drug vaccines that permanently negate the effect of drugs. A cocaine 
vaccine has been tested on mice with promising results.

Whether it is the development of vaccines that prevent addiction or 
some other discovery about brain chemistry and addiction, this type 
of medical research is the most promising hope for a real, permanent 
solution. Given the enormous cost of drug abuse and addiction, almost 
any investment one can imagine in research in this area could be 
justified on a cost-benefits analysis.

In this country, politicians rarely even question the war on drugs 
for fear that their opponents will charge that they are soft on 
drugs, notwithstanding that 70 percent of the American people have 
figured out that what we are doing is not working. Unfortunately, as 
in so many other cases, most of our elected officials continue to 
lead from the rear.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom