>Sender: >To: >X-Original-Message-ID: <21e801bf1192$70136580$9acf69cf@pacbell.net> >From: "Peter McWilliams" >Subject: Pharmaceutical News >Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1999 06:38:43 -0700 >X-Mozilla-Status: 8001 >X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 > > >Pubdate: June 1999 >Source: Pharmaceutical News >Contact: http://www.gbhap-us.com/pharmanews/contact.htm >Copyright: (c) 1996-1999 OPA (Overseas Publishers Association) N.V. >Website: http://www.gbhap-us.com/pharmanews/ >Author: David J. Triggle, Ph.D., Editorial Director > >THAT 'OTHER' DRUG AGENCY > >Most of us in the pharmaceutical sciences come in contact with only >one drug regulatory agency - the FDA. And while there may be >legitimate grounds to complain about its bureaucracy, on occasion >ponderous, few would argue that the FDA is anything but an agency that >works on behalf of the health and welfare of the American population. >The FDA is also widely respected in international circles where it >cooperates with other similarly oriented national agencies to craft >worldwide standards for drug use and approval. But there is another >drug regulatory agency whose function is very much the opposite - >namely, the disapproval of drugs designated as illegal. Whether the >Drug Enforcement Administration also works on behalf of the health and >welfare of the American population is increasingly open to question, >and most of us should be grateful that we will not run up against this >other agency. > >The war on drugs is fueled by that uniquely American mix of >Puritanism, love of punishment, and political expediency, and it has >generated as its major product a prison population that now exceeds, >in both absolute number and percentages, any other country save >Russia. This should be naught for our comfort as we contemplate a >prison population approaching 2 million and where approximately 80% >are in jail for alcohol and drug-related offences. In a recent article >in The Washington Monthly, Joseph Califano, former Secretary of >Health, Education, and Welfare, estimated that one out of every 20 >Americans born in 1997 would spend some time in jail and that one in >four black Americans would suffer a similar fate. Mark Twain once >observed that "the non-sustainable tends to become exactly that - >non-sustainable," and so it is with our rate of imprisonment, spending >on prisons, and the sheer amplifying effect of this major >incarceration on the social structure and function of the United >States. Consider that the approximately 1.5 million drug-incarcerated >inhabitants are the parents of almost 2.5 million children and >consider that this jailed population is predominantly black and >Hispanic. The effect on family structure and child welfare is not >difficult to foresee. > >There are also other consequences to our war on drugs, namely the >sacrifice of individual liberties and respect for law as they become >lost in "no knock" raids, property confiscation, mandatory jail terms, >and horror stories of "sorry, wrong address" raids by paramilitary >SWAT teams. We also insult our geographical neighbors, notably Mexico, >by certifying or decertifying them for their cooperation, or lack >thereof, in stemming the cultivation or transportation of drugs, >whilst we ignore the fact that supply rarely exists in the absence of >a demand. And that demand is dominantly American. > >Finally, the war on drugs, activated by Ronald Reagan in the early >1980s, has cost and still costs a vast amount of money - over $300 >billion and counting. It has displaced national priorities so that the >costs of prison construction and support challenge the funds available >for higher education and prisons become a growth industry. > >There is only one solution and that also will cost money, but in the >end it will be the least costly solution. That solution is drug abuse >education and treatment. Absent that, the release of addicted >individuals merely ensures an increase in the disaffected and >drug-addicted public population. The cost? With a high estimate of >$10,000 per year per treatment there is an immediate benefit and >return to society by a reduction in crime and a stabilization of >family life. But before this can happen, there must be a political >acceptance that drug addiction is a disorder and that treating drug >addiction as a disorder does not mean "soft on crime." > >And now there is an almost delicious irony with the publication of the >report from the Institute of Medicine (commisioned by the White House >Office of National Drug Control Policy) that there may well be medical >uses for marijuana and that for some disorders - AIDS and cancer - it >may well be the best available agent. This report should be well read >and its conclusions studied long and hard, particularly in light of >the over 700,000 arrests a year for marijuana possession or use. Will >we change our policies? Probably not, or at least not in the near >term. We like our "villains" too much to give up this one without some >really convincing evidence and, more important, some real political >bravery. >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >References: > >Dan Baum, Smoke and Mirrors: the War on Drugs and the Politics of Failure, >Little, Brown, Boston, MA (1997). > >Mike Gray, Drug Crazy, Random House, New York (1998). > >Joseph A. Califano, The Washington Monthly, October, 1998. > >J. E. Joy et al., Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base, >National >Academy Press, Washington, DC (1999). > > > > > > > >================================================================ > >This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to > the mailing list . >To unsubscribe, E-mail to: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------