{news} US NY: Editorial: Not Winning the War on Drugs

[Clifford Thornton]

There are two basic questions I ask during lectures and
that is; Do you think we are winning the war on drugs?
and Do you think people will ever stop using illegal drugs?

The overwheliming response is not to both questions.

What do you think?



Newshawk: Please Write a LTE www.mapinc.org/resource/#guides<http://www.mapinc.org/resource/#guides>
Pubdate: Wed, 2 Jul 2008
Source: New York Times (NY)
Page: 18, Section A
Copyright: 2008 The New York Times Company
Contact: letters at nytimes.com<mailto:letters at nytimes.com>
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/<http://www.nytimes.com/>
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298<http://www.mapinc.org/media/298>

NOT WINNING THE WAR ON DRUGS

According to the White House, this country is scoring big wins in the 
war on drugs, especially against the cocaine cartels. Officials 
celebrate that cocaine seizures are up -- leading to higher prices on 
American streets. Cocaine use by teenagers is down, and, officials 
say, workplace tests suggest adult use is falling.

John Walters, the White House drug czar, declared earlier this year 
that "courageous and effective" counternarcotics efforts in Colombia 
and Mexico "are disrupting the production and flow of cocaine."

This enthusiasm rests on a very selective reading of the data. 
Another look suggests that despite the billions of dollars the United 
States has spent battling the cartels, it has hardly made a dent in 
the cocaine trade.

While seizures are up, so are shipments. According to United States 
government figures, 1,421 metric tons of cocaine were shipped through 
Latin America to the United States and Europe last year -- 39 percent 
more than in 2006. And despite massive efforts at eradication, the 
United Nations estimates that the area devoted to growing coca leaf 
in the Andes expanded 16 percent last year. The administration 
disputes that number.

The drug cartels are not running for cover.

Mexico and parts of Central America are being swept up in 
drug-related violence. Latin Americans are becoming heavy consumers 
of cocaine, and traffickers are opening new routes to Europe through 
fragile West African countries. Some experts argue that the rising 
price of cocaine on American streets is mostly the result of a strong 
euro and fast-growing demand in Europe.

Workplace drug tests notwithstanding, cocaine use in the United 
States is not falling. About 2.5 percent of Americans used cocaine at 
least once in 2006, the same percentage as in 2002, according to the 
Department of Health and Human Services.

While cocaine use has fallen among younger teenagers, 12th graders 
are using more: 5.2 percent used cocaine last year -- up from 4.8 
percent in 2001 and 3.1 percent at the low point in 1992, says a 
Monitoring the Future survey done by the University of Michigan.

All this suggests serious problems with a strategy that focuses 
overwhelmingly on disrupting the supply of drugs while doing far too 
little to curb domestic demand.

Washington spent $1.4 billion on drug-related foreign assistance last 
year -- mostly to equip Colombia's security forces and spray coca 
crops in the Andes. It spent another $7 billion on drug-related law 
enforcement and interdiction efforts at home and abroad. It spent 
less than $5 billion on education, prevention and treatment programs 
at home to curtail substance abuse.

The counternarcotics effort has produced some successes. Marijuana 
use in the United States has declined since 2002, the earliest year 
for which the government has comparable data. Teenage use of other 
drugs, like methamphetamine, has fallen sharply. With American aid, 
Colombia's armed forces have severely weakened the FARC guerrillas, a 
major player in the drug trade.

The next administration should continue to help Latin American 
governments take on the traffickers. But it must learn from the 
current strategy's shortcomings.

Eradication efforts are most likely to have more success if more 
money is spent on programs to wean coca growers from the business and 
improve the lives of their families and communities. Mexico, in 
particular, is in deep trouble, and the next American president 
should build on the Bush administration's plans to provide 
counternarcotics aid. There needs to be a different mix: less money 
for equipment for security forces and more for economic development 
and programs to reform and strengthen Mexico's judicial system.

Above all, the next administration must put much more effort into 
curbing demand -- spending more on treating drug addicts and less on 
putting them in jail. Drug courts, which sentence users to treatment, 
still deal only with a small minority of drug cases and should be 
vastly expanded. Drug-treatment programs for imprisoned drug abusers, 
especially juvenile offenders, must also be expanded.

Over all, drug abuse must be seen more as a public health concern and 
not primarily a law enforcement problem. Until demand is curbed at 
home, there is no chance of winning the war on drugs. 

Efficacy
PO Box 1234
860 657 8438
Hartford, CT 06143
efficacy at msn.com<mailto:efficacy at msn.com>
www.Efficacy-online.org<http://www.efficacy-online.org/>
 
"THE DRUG WAR IS MEANT TO BE WAGED NOT WON"

Working to end race and class drug war injustice, Efficacy is a non profit
501 (c) 3 organization founded in 1997. Your gifts and donations are tax
deductible
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