>From: "Peter McWilliams" >Subject: McCaffrey's "friendly fire" defended >Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 13:27:23 -0800 >X-Mozilla-Status: 8001 >X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 > > >Pubdate: Wed, 29 Dec 1999 >Source: Washington Post (DC) >Copyright: 1999 The Washington Post Company >Address: 1150 15th Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20071 >Feedback: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm >Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ >Author: Brett Wagner >Note: The writer is president of the California Center for Strategic >Studies. > >YOU CAN'T HELP DRUG USERS BY JAILING THEM > >Abraham Lincoln once argued that "a prohibition law strikes a blow at the >very principles upon which this country was founded." Yet today's >politicians follow a set of principles that allow them to advocate laws >which, if fully enforced, would imprison tens of millions of Americans for >using drugs. > >In the eyes of mainstream America, the drug war still operates under the >pretense that its primary goal is helping our children stay off drugs. >According to this pretense, the kids are supposed to be the potential >victims whom the war seeks to defend. But the instant that little John and >Mary pop their first pill or smoke their first joint, they are immediately >transformed by the terms of the war itself into something quite different >from victims: They become our enemies. Our goal then becomes not helping >them, but jailing them. > >My brother Billy was a casualty not of drugs but of the drug war. As a boy, >Billy was considered a child prodigy, twice honored by our hometown >newspaper as the outstanding high school photographer of the year. Like >many adolescents, though, Billy experimented with drugs, and somewhere >along the way he got hooked. > >Billy's once-promising future became a downward spiral of temporary highs >and ever-deepening lows. But before our family could figure out how to help >him, Billy was arrested and imprisoned for a nonviolent drug offense. After >finally getting out, he tried as hard as he could to stay away from drugs. >Like countless other victims of dependency, however, he fell off the wagon. >Unfortunately, this happened just before he was forced by his parole >officer to take a random drug test. Faced with further imprisonment, Billy >chose to end his life. > >The drug war has been raging with no end in sight for several generations >now; Billy died over 18 years ago. The war is no closer to achieving its >stated objectives today than it was then--ironically it is probably farther >from it. > >For example, while the number of federal inmates doing time for nonviolent >drug offenses has risen more than eightfold since 1981, drug abuse among >America's youth remains cyclical at best, and virtually unaffected by >Draconian measures such as the threat of lengthy imprisonment and mandatory >sentencing guidelines. These same trends extend to the state and local >levels, where the number of imprisoned drug offenders has similarly >mushroomed, with no correlating decrease in drug abuse. > >Despite this sorry record, the drug war marches on--albeit to the beat of a >different drummer under the Clinton administration. While the president's >efforts to place greater emphasis on "treatment" of chronic drug abusers >should be applauded, his continued adherence to the notion that you can >somehow help drug users by jailing them is inherently flawed. > >First, it ignores the fact that the overwhelming majority of drug users are >"recreational users," taking drugs only on weekends or at the occasional >rock concert. Whatever harmful effect drugs are having on these people's >lives pales in comparison with the devastating effects that years of >incarceration would have. Moreover, most of these people eventually outgrow >drugs on their own. Otherwise there would now be more than 80 million drug >users in America, rather than the current 25 million--including, >presumably, both of our presidential front-runners. > >Second, the punishment imposed on convicted drug offenders typically has >little or no connection with actually helping the user to stop using drugs. >Not only are drugs readily available in most of our nation's prisons; most >prison drug programs are swamped by the vast numbers of nonviolent drug >offenders currently serving time. > >I had the rare opportunity to discuss some of these issues with the federal >drug czar, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, at a Georgetown University symposium where >we both spoke a couple of years ago. After the gathering broke up, the >general told me that nearly everywhere he speaks someone tells a story >similar to my brother's. He explained to me, as if to a family member of >someone killed by friendly fire, that innocent casualties are an inevitable >consequence of any war. > >I reminded him that this war is different. It is a war being waged not >against a foreign enemy but against millions of our own citizens. It is a >war that has already taken more prisoners than any other. To his credit, >the general recently renounced the use of the term "drug war" for these >very reasons. > >The time has come to reclaim the moral high ground from the drug warriors. >Then, and only then, will the drug war be exposed for what it truly is: a >failed attempt at social engineering that should have no place in the 21st >century. > >The writer is president of the California Center for Strategic Studies. > > >================================================================ > >This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to > the mailing list . >To unsubscribe, E-mail to: