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Conservative columnist George F. Will was one of the first columnists to join the Washington Post Writers group, and began writing for Newsweek two...
Read more about George F. Will.
Conservative columnist George F. Will was one of the first columnists to join the Washington Post Writers group, and began writing for Newsweek two...
Read more about George F. Will.
Dose Of Realism In A Drug War
George F. Will
WASHINGTON -- During his immersion in his new job, Gil Kerlikowske
attended a focus group of 7-year-old girls and was mystified by their
talk about "farm parties." Then he realized they meant "pharm parties"
-- sampling pharmaceuticals from their parents' medicine cabinets.
What he learned -- besides that young humans have less native sense
than young dachshunds have -- is that his job has wrinkles
unanticipated when he became director of the Office of National Drug
Control Policy.
"People," he says, "want a different conversation" about drug policies. With his first report to the president early next year, he could increase the quotient of realism.
Law enforcement has a "can do culture" but it also instructs its practitioners about what cannot be done, at least by law enforcement alone. Kerlikowske, who was top cop in Buffalo and then Seattle, knows that officers sweeping drug users from cities' streets feel as though they are "regurgitating perps through the system."
He dryly notes that "not many people think the drug war is a success." Furthermore, the recession's toll on state budgets has concentrated minds on the costs of drug offense incarcerations -- costs that in some states are larger than expenditures on secondary education. Fortunately, the first drug courts were established two decades ago and today there are 2,300 nationwide, pointing drug policy away from punishment and toward treatment.
Kerlikowske is familiar with Portugal's experience since 2001 with decriminalization of all drugs, including heroin and cocaine. Nature made Kerlikowske laconic and experience has made him prudent, so he steers clear of the "L" word, legalization, even regarding marijuana.
Asked if he thinks that is a "gateway" drug leading to worse substances, he answers obliquely: "You don't find many heroin users who didn't start with marijuana." And he warns that more intense cultivation of marijuana is yielding a product with notably high THC content -- the potent ingredient.
In 1998, the United Nations, with its penchant for empty grandstanding, committed its members to "eliminating or significantly reducing" opium, cocaine and marijuana production by 2008, en route to a "drug-free world." Nowadays the U.N. is pleased that the drug trade has "stabilized."
The Economist magazine says this means that more than 200 million people -- almost 5 percent of the world's adult population -- take illegal drugs, the same proportion as a decade ago. The annual U.S. bill for attempting to diminish the supply of drugs is $40 billion. Of the 1.5 million Americans arrested each year on drug offenses, half a million are incarcerated. "Tougher drug laws are the main reason why one in five black American men spend some time behind bars," The Economist said.
"There is no correlation between the harshness of drug laws and the incidence of drug-taking: citizens living under tough regimes (notably America but also Britain) take more drugs, not fewer." Do cultural differences explain this? Evidently not: "Even in fairly similar countries tough rules make little difference to the number of addicts: harsh Sweden and more liberal Norway have precisely the same addiction rates."
The good news is the progress America has made against tobacco, which is more addictive than most illegal drugs. And then there is alcohol.
In "Waking Giant: America in the Age of Jackson," historian David S. Reynolds writes that in 1820, Americans spent on liquor a sum larger than the federal government's budget. By the mid-1820s, annual per capita consumption of absolute alcohol reached seven gallons, more than three times today's rate. "Most employers," Reynolds reports, "assumed that their workers needed strong drink for stimulation: a typical workday included two bells, one rung at 11 a.m. and the other at 4 p.m., that summoned employees for alcoholic drinks."
The elderly Walt Whitman said, "It is very hard for the present generation anyhow to understand the drinkingness of those years. ... it is quite incommunicable." In 1842, a Springfield, Ill., teetotaler named Lincoln said that liquor was "like the Egyptian angel of death, commissioned to slay, if not the first, the fairest born in every family." Which helps explain why the nation sobered up (somewhat; these things are relative). One reason crack cocaine use has declined is that a generation of inner-city young people saw what it did to their parents and older siblings.
Kerlikowske can hope that social learning, although slow and intermittent, is on his side. But perhaps he knows the axiom that experience is a great teacher, but submits steep bills.
=======
George Will's e-mail address is georgewill@washpost.com
Copyright 2009 Washington Post Writers Group
This news arrived on: 10/29/2009
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Posted Comments:
10-31-2009 03:46
Catharyne Stauffer wrote:
to JCE , that is what I meant when I said subsidy checks, its a polite way of saying welfare checks .
10-31-2009 03:00
JCE wrote:
It takes a community to raise a child. That is why we are failing, we have lost communities. And I would include those subsidy checks as the welfare for the rich, which is far more common than for the poor. At least 3 times as much money goes to subsidizing the rich. While I am concerned about welfare for the poor, I am outraged at welfare for the rich.
10-30-2009 21:23
Catharyne Stauffer wrote:
As far as anyone receiving a government subsidy check , I think the government would find it far cheaper in the long run to drug test anyone applying and those that fail do not receive taxpayers money period .
10-30-2009 21:15
Catharyne Stauffer wrote:
Pharm parties spoken by these children of 7 years old has given me even a bigger push to home school or place her in a small well acclaimed private school .
Where in hell are the parents of these children that they would be knowing about such things nevermind participating such parties .
One parent might be doing everything right by their child but all it takes is for a child from a lax family to lead your down a dangerous and deadly path .
If our society was not so screwed up , with its sending such conflicting messages about negative behavior with positive rewards many of the problems we see today would be dramatically reduced .
Criminal behavior is a social problem not a law enforcement problem .
There is a direct correlation between young people that are given good moral and ethical examples through out their lives and those that do not receive such parental guidance and interest. Keep people in your children's lives that reflect your own values and do not expose them to those things that are not.
I can see why common sense is not so common these days just look at the conflicting messages people are constantly exposed to within our society .
Where in hell are the parents of these children that they would be knowing about such things nevermind participating such parties .
One parent might be doing everything right by their child but all it takes is for a child from a lax family to lead your down a dangerous and deadly path .
If our society was not so screwed up , with its sending such conflicting messages about negative behavior with positive rewards many of the problems we see today would be dramatically reduced .
Criminal behavior is a social problem not a law enforcement problem .
There is a direct correlation between young people that are given good moral and ethical examples through out their lives and those that do not receive such parental guidance and interest. Keep people in your children's lives that reflect your own values and do not expose them to those things that are not.
I can see why common sense is not so common these days just look at the conflicting messages people are constantly exposed to within our society .
10-30-2009 18:25
JCE wrote:
One of the main problems is the media. We are constantly bombarded with the idea that if you have a problem, any problem, to take a pill for that. To ask your doctor if this drug is right for you. Because if the doctor gives it to you, it is good for you. So then you realize that if you are going to medicate, and that there are alternatives to the doctors, that may make you feel even better, hey, why not. This stems from the belief that if we consume, and buy everything sold, then the economy will be good. Well, it is for the sellers, maybe, but not the buyers. Especially when most of what is being bought isn't necessary, beneficial, or even made in this country. Whatever a person can sell, it becomes paramount to make people think they must have that product, at any price. And that is the official policy of our country. Anything to make a buck, anything. And that is our sacred right, or moral imperative. Kids learn what they live. Parents take drugs for everything, and drug the kids. Life sucks, so we need something to calm us down, destress us, and make the pain go away. That is what kids learn, that and that mommy and daddy keep the good drugs for themselves, so best to hit the streets.
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