Thursday, May 03, 2001
A proposed solution for the drug problem
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
The war on drugs has reached another crisis, with the downing of a plane and the killing of a missionary and her baby daughter by Peruvian airforce, the latest of 25 planes shot down in the interdiction effort. The interdiction effort costs US taxpayers $1.1 billion in Peru area alone, and has "helped in reducing the count of drug users in the US from 27 million in 1979 to 13 million as of the past few years, not counting the recent upsurge" (I’m sure the ‘90s prosperity and upsurge in jobs for the unskilled did the bulk of the job).
Hearing these claims on CNN makes me sick. The war on drugs is an industry, costing $37 bilion in 1995, and adding numbers to the GNP and GDP, as part of the economic growth of this country. If it were really successful in lessening drug use and saving lives, it might be worthwhile, but it is only fractionally effective. It adds to the growth of the prison industy, with its two million clients and hundreds of thousands of service enployees, another fine GNP item. We should be ashamed of ourselves for not finding effective ways to salvage the 400,000 drug users and criminals now in jail.
This is a sick country, with epaulette-decorated minds like William Bennett and Gen McCaffrey proudly announcing how drug use has been reduced through military efforts, interdiction and taking the dealers off the streets. They preen about reducing the supply.
What about reducing demand, and letting the supply fall off? That solution has not been too successful either. Even demand side advocates like Rep. Maxine Waters speak vaguely of "education," suasion, support groups and talks in schools.There is no real thought given to effective curbs to demand, in the country that put men on the moon. Is education going to work with Darryl Strawberry, the sickeningly sad wreck of a national hero, or with Robert Downey Jr.? Many of us read the recent article in the NYT Magazine section, about the Straw's efforts to rehabilitate, his lies and relapses. You read of his friends saying: "He's junkie, do not listen to him, you cannot believe him." Promises to reform mean nothing to people who live from fix to fix, and stay clean only until the next crisis in living sends them back to dope and deception.
Yet there may be an answer to this problem of curbing demand among drug users, the three million addicts and 10 million "recreational users." The answer is not to legalize drugs, as George Soros and his cost-benefit analysts observe. Legalizing will totally destroy the vulnerable people of this nation who use potent drugs to provide relief from the pressures of the tense everyday environment. A search for a more lasting escape will push their demands up fast, expediting the process of their self-destruction and loss to society. Note that tobacco and alcohol are similar addictive agents, although less destructive on a percentage of use basis, and look at the damage they cause. Hard drugs escalate the addiction/destruction process.
Strawberry is a man who felt for people. He gave away millions to relatives and friends in need. It is that type of person who returns to drugs when emergency or unbearable circumstances confront him (or her, let's not forget). It is that configuration of personality we have to worry about when we try to curb demand for drugs by interdiction, or reduction in supply. It does not work.
So then, you may ask, smartass, how do you curb demand? Let's think it through. Educate, forbid, arrest, put in jail... Let’s consider the latter threat.Why not develop a cocaine (or angel dust, Ecstasy, LSD) substitute, and offer the criminal users of drugs the option to go to jail or have periodic substitute therapy instead? Installing therapy institutes will help rehabilitate the addicts, reduce demand, curb crime, add to the GNP, provide jobs for social service people, and cut the exposure to foreign entanglements. It is a methadone-type therapy.
Let's go even a step further. Why can’t the US, a nation that can clone living creatures, sponsor development of drugs that give bad reactions to users of cocaine (angel dust, Ecstasy, LSD). When injected with this antidote, the relapsing drug user will have an undesirable reaction (say, a bad headache, diarrhea, inability to hold down food, incontinence, change of skin tone to green or purple, development of a distinct body odor, or whatever else is appropriate). Offer this medication to the criminal drug addicts, plus therapy and support groups, as an alternative to jail. Take a year, or five years, even ten, to develop and implement this "cure." Again, implementing such a cure will not only add to the GNP, it will save lives and families. Save lives! That's what interdiction often forgets, in its effort to catch drug distributors and price the drugs out of the market. The latter fails because the true addict, faced with higher costs, will not stop the use of drugs, he will redouble his effort to rob or steal (or sell crooked stocks, or cheat clients, or doctor books), to raise the money. Saving lives is what we have to concentrate on.
The US should pay Pfizer or Squibb to get started in developing the medicines. We the citizens of the US can pay for their time, or get the National Institute of Health to do the work. It is worth it.
Where are the Einsteins of Academy of Sciences, the NIH, the legislature, the legal system and the civil rights community that they have not addressed the question of effectively curbing the demand for illegal drugs? Drug abuse is a national disgrace. And even with the wrenching tragedy of a dead mother and baby, why is there nothing but "we told them, almost in time, but they did not listen" complacency on part of the responsible military, followed by pro forma cries for investigation of the CIA, the Coast Guard and the Immigration Service that we hear from the public representatives and the press? Let's solve the problem, not tread water and generate GNP in wasted taxpayer money. Great leaders of our era, take this set of ideas to the drawing board and work on them. Washington to copy, let's not waste any more lives.
The war on drugs has reached another crisis, with the downing of a plane and the killing of a missionary and her baby daughter by Peruvian airforce, the latest of 25 planes shot down in the interdiction effort. The interdiction effort costs US taxpayers $1.1 billion in Peru area alone, and has "helped in reducing the count of drug users in the US from 27 million in 1979 to 13 million as of the past few years, not counting the recent upsurge" (I’m sure the ‘90s prosperity and upsurge in jobs for the unskilled did the bulk of the job).
Hearing these claims on CNN makes me sick. The war on drugs is an industry, costing $37 bilion in 1995, and adding numbers to the GNP and GDP, as part of the economic growth of this country. If it were really successful in lessening drug use and saving lives, it might be worthwhile, but it is only fractionally effective. It adds to the growth of the prison industy, with its two million clients and hundreds of thousands of service enployees, another fine GNP item. We should be ashamed of ourselves for not finding effective ways to salvage the 400,000 drug users and criminals now in jail.
This is a sick country, with epaulette-decorated minds like William Bennett and Gen McCaffrey proudly announcing how drug use has been reduced through military efforts, interdiction and taking the dealers off the streets. They preen about reducing the supply.
What about reducing demand, and letting the supply fall off? That solution has not been too successful either. Even demand side advocates like Rep. Maxine Waters speak vaguely of "education," suasion, support groups and talks in schools.There is no real thought given to effective curbs to demand, in the country that put men on the moon. Is education going to work with Darryl Strawberry, the sickeningly sad wreck of a national hero, or with Robert Downey Jr.? Many of us read the recent article in the NYT Magazine section, about the Straw's efforts to rehabilitate, his lies and relapses. You read of his friends saying: "He's junkie, do not listen to him, you cannot believe him." Promises to reform mean nothing to people who live from fix to fix, and stay clean only until the next crisis in living sends them back to dope and deception.
Yet there may be an answer to this problem of curbing demand among drug users, the three million addicts and 10 million "recreational users." The answer is not to legalize drugs, as George Soros and his cost-benefit analysts observe. Legalizing will totally destroy the vulnerable people of this nation who use potent drugs to provide relief from the pressures of the tense everyday environment. A search for a more lasting escape will push their demands up fast, expediting the process of their self-destruction and loss to society. Note that tobacco and alcohol are similar addictive agents, although less destructive on a percentage of use basis, and look at the damage they cause. Hard drugs escalate the addiction/destruction process.
Strawberry is a man who felt for people. He gave away millions to relatives and friends in need. It is that type of person who returns to drugs when emergency or unbearable circumstances confront him (or her, let's not forget). It is that configuration of personality we have to worry about when we try to curb demand for drugs by interdiction, or reduction in supply. It does not work.
So then, you may ask, smartass, how do you curb demand? Let's think it through. Educate, forbid, arrest, put in jail... Let’s consider the latter threat.Why not develop a cocaine (or angel dust, Ecstasy, LSD) substitute, and offer the criminal users of drugs the option to go to jail or have periodic substitute therapy instead? Installing therapy institutes will help rehabilitate the addicts, reduce demand, curb crime, add to the GNP, provide jobs for social service people, and cut the exposure to foreign entanglements. It is a methadone-type therapy.
Let's go even a step further. Why can’t the US, a nation that can clone living creatures, sponsor development of drugs that give bad reactions to users of cocaine (angel dust, Ecstasy, LSD). When injected with this antidote, the relapsing drug user will have an undesirable reaction (say, a bad headache, diarrhea, inability to hold down food, incontinence, change of skin tone to green or purple, development of a distinct body odor, or whatever else is appropriate). Offer this medication to the criminal drug addicts, plus therapy and support groups, as an alternative to jail. Take a year, or five years, even ten, to develop and implement this "cure." Again, implementing such a cure will not only add to the GNP, it will save lives and families. Save lives! That's what interdiction often forgets, in its effort to catch drug distributors and price the drugs out of the market. The latter fails because the true addict, faced with higher costs, will not stop the use of drugs, he will redouble his effort to rob or steal (or sell crooked stocks, or cheat clients, or doctor books), to raise the money. Saving lives is what we have to concentrate on.
The US should pay Pfizer or Squibb to get started in developing the medicines. We the citizens of the US can pay for their time, or get the National Institute of Health to do the work. It is worth it.
Where are the Einsteins of Academy of Sciences, the NIH, the legislature, the legal system and the civil rights community that they have not addressed the question of effectively curbing the demand for illegal drugs? Drug abuse is a national disgrace. And even with the wrenching tragedy of a dead mother and baby, why is there nothing but "we told them, almost in time, but they did not listen" complacency on part of the responsible military, followed by pro forma cries for investigation of the CIA, the Coast Guard and the Immigration Service that we hear from the public representatives and the press? Let's solve the problem, not tread water and generate GNP in wasted taxpayer money. Great leaders of our era, take this set of ideas to the drawing board and work on them. Washington to copy, let's not waste any more lives.
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 2:32 PM 
