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COMMENTARY: Seeking Peace In The Drug War

Lock those addicts up,

To stay;

I can keep my job,

That way.

By Bill Collins

Gray heads among us recall that it took a fierce anti-Communist Republican,

Richard Nixon, to make peace with China. The Democrats, being softies, lacked

credibility.

Now we need a similar leader for drugs. Soft-hearted Democrats have criticized

the Drug War for years, to little avail. Even when voters in a referendum call

for easing that battle, the federal warlords never budge.

But something new is afoot. Republican Governor Gary Johnson of New Mexico is

pitching reconsideration of the War. He recently won reelection, despite his

long-time admission of having favored drugs as a youth. George W. Bush's

current drug embarrassment is also helping. If he indeed used cocaine at an

earlier age, and is now running for president, why is it that people who use

cocaine today, especially in Texas, go to jail. This policy of compassionate

hypocrisy is even stimulating interest in our normally docile press. A few

members are discussing the wisdom of the whole War.

And now the sacred D.A.R.E. program is finally being examined. The police, of

all people, in some cities have concluded that it doesn't do much good.

Lexington, Mass., is the latest to drop out, joining Seattle, Omaha, and

others. They think that traditional health curricula are just as effective.

Not surprisingly, kids are looking for a program that tells them the truth.

They can see through official propaganda in a flash.

Another eye-opener was a recent report showing that while crime rates are

plummeting, prison populations are still going up. The press is playing with

that one too. The clear answer seems to be the mandatory sentences imposed on

drug offenders. They keep folks in jail for a very long time.

For those folks, a sudden reassessment of the War is too late. For others,

though, there is hope. And none too soon. Heroin treatment centers in

Connecticut show a new wave of addicts, fueled by lower prices and better

quality goods. The War has done nothing to shrink that wave. What it has done

is direct money and sympathy away from treatment. And what with addicts being

defined as criminals, they are less likely to show up anyplace for help when

cops might be around.

In another case, Connecticut is happily ahead of the pack. That's methadone.

Last month, San Francisco, the recreational drug capital of America, announced

that it would study the feasibility of letting some doctors prescribe

methadone in their offices. That would allow diversion of reclaimed heroin

addicts from highly regimented and often degrading clinics. Well, amazingly,

Connecticut beat San Francisco to the punch. We already have such a test going

on. It's in Waterbury. It may be moving at glacial speed, but it's there.

But unfortunately, it's only a token. We really need methadone availability

from doctors statewide, and in our jails as well. We also need marijuana

availability to patients for whom it is the only relief from pain. We need

more needle availability too, for addicts in danger of getting AIDS. And we

need hospital availability of heroin itself, as the Swiss have done, for

addicts beyond all other forms of treatment.

There are, in fact, many ways to de-escalate the War. Let's hope that Gov

Johnson's crusade and Gov Bush's travails help set that stage. The

Prison-Industrial Complex will resist change at every turn. If you might like

to lend a hand, write to A Better Way, 77 Sunrise Hill Road, Norwalk, CT

06851, or call 203/847-7746. They're looking for help.

(Bill Collins, a former mayor of Norwalk, is a syndicated columnist.)