What's Wrong With the War on Drugs?

President Bush launched his administration's war against drugs just over two years ago on September 5, 1989. The strategy announced by the president and his first drug czar, William Bennett, rubber-stamped the Reagan drug control approach. In addition it promised more money, better coordination and a full commitment from the commander-in-chief.

President Bush has intensified the war, but recent National Insti-tute on Drug Abuse statistics show that victory in the drug war is still far from a reality. Indeed, on many fronts the problems are getting worse. Meanwhile, the war on drugs is costing the states and federal government billions of dollars, overfilling our prisons, breeding crime and violence, and failing to treat those people who desperately want help.

Drug War at an Impasse

The drug war was the centerpiece of the administration's early domestic agenda. But as the months wore on, the drug czar became discouraged and abandoned his post, leaving the drug war adrift. Leader-ship at the Office of National Drug Control Policy has been slow to de-velop, and staff shakeups have hampered coordination and progress. The issue has fallen from the headlines even as many of the social problems related to illegal drugs have increased.

Drug-related crime and violence have reached record levels today. In 1990, 23,438 Americans were murdered — a record figure fueled in part by drug trade-related violence. While final figures for 1991 are not available yet, all indications are that the homicide record will be broken again. This worsening of the highest priority drug-related problems is the paradoxical result of increased drug enforcement. As Nobel Laureate economist Milton Friedman has pointed out, the homicide rate has gone up in response to increased competition among drug sellers, much as it also climbed during alcohol Prohibition.

AIDS continues its deadly spread in our society, with close to one-third of all cases traceable to the use of infected needles by intravenous drug users. The worst aspect of this gruesome situation is that the spread of AIDS via dirty needles could have been prevented all along. Federal drug war policy makers have refused to consider the single measure that could undeniably and immediately reduce the nu. mber of people contract-ing the disease through infected needles: sterile needle exchange. By shutting down the spread of AIDS among addicts, we would also reduce the incidence of the disease among their sexual partners and children, thus helping curb the disease among the mainstream population.

Our courts and prisons are being flooded with drug cases, pushing federal, state and local courts to the breaking point. Over 1.2 million Americans now live behind bars, giving the United States the highest incarceration rate in the free world. In some cities, it is now virtually impossible to try a civil case because all the judges' dockets are filled with drug cases, many of which involve only small transactions or simple possession. What is worse, every drug dealer arrested is simply replaced the next day by someone else who needs money desperately enough to risk arrest by the police or death by competing traffickers.

Drug use-related problems continue to escalate. Drug-related deaths have not declined during the last decade. Emergency room men-tions of illegal drugs have fluctuated, but the most recent government figures indicate drug emergencies are on the increase again. And accord-ing to both the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Senate Judiciary Committee, so-called "hard-core" drug use is also rising.

Poor and Minority Communities Have Been Disproportionately Affected by Enforcement Emphasis

Because the illegal drug business thrives where legitimate eco-nomic opportunities are limited, drug enforcement has inevitably become focused on poor and minority communities. The result is a striking disproportionality in arrest and incarceration figures, where minorities are represented at two to three times their percentage in the general population.

According to the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, blacks make up 12 to 15 percent of the nation's illegal drug users. Yet in 1989, 41 percent of those arrested on drug charges were black. According to the Washington, D.C.-based Sentencing Project, the United States has more young black men in jail than South Africa on a per capita basis. Blacks make up 46 percent of the U.S. prison population.

The long-term impact of disproportionate drug enforcement on the livelihood of minority communities is still not well understood. But with statistics showing that nearly one in four young black males is either in prison, on parole or on probation, common sense says employment pros-pects for many minorities will be hampered well into the next generation. Having thousands of fathers in jail also hinders the development of strong family values. So long as the illicit drug business continues to operate in these communities and enforcement efforts target them with the same vigor, the prognosis is grim.

Time for Change to Salvage the Future

The president's drug war is failing to achieve its stated objectives, and is doing more harm than good. As our nation plans for the year 2000 and beyond, it is imperative that the mistaken approach to drugs that has dominated the last several decades be reconsidered seriously. It is time to turn the corner and focus on methods that work to reduce drug abuse and corollary social problems.

It is time for drug czar Bob Martinez and President Bush to admit that our nation's drug policy needs a new focus, a new direction and a new conscience. To aid the development of a rational and humane alter-native to the war against drugs, the Drug Policy Foundation hereby offers a reform agenda for 1992.

Purpose of this Strategy

As critics of the drug war, we have consistently been asked to produce a concrete, alternative plan to show our differences with adminis-tration policy. We have often made such proposals. This strategy repre-sents a summary of those which could be immediately implemented.

Our agenda has been formulated with an eye towards achievability. Each of the policy recommendations urged herein could be implemented by the Bush administration without significant changes in the drug laws. Each idea, however, could go far toward bringing a needed dose of com-passion and pragmatism into the national anti-drug effort.

Only slight statutory changes are recommended here. Some of the items would merely require voluntary reforms by the states. We at the Drug Policy Foundation have attempted to meet drug-war policy makers halfway by urging reforms that fit within the current legal framework.

We hasten to add, however, that we feel the war on drugs is the result of fundamentally flawed assumptions about drugs and drug users. The drug war provides our nation little more than a course for disaster, because like all prohibition policies it ignores basic rules of economics. One of the cruelest ironies of our attempts to suppress drugs is that such efforts actually expand the illegal market, enriching villains and creating incentives for people to "push" drugs on others.

Hence, the final recommendation that alternative policies be seri-ously examined. The Bush administration's strategy — stay the course — offers little hope of short- or long-term success.

To date, the administration has avoided answering fundamental questions about long-term drug policy. We believe this great nation must now reform its current approach and consider finding new ways of think-ing about drugs. We encourage all Americans to join us in helping develop a sensible and compassionate alternative to a permanent war, a war fought not to win but to prove the ideological zeal of those who fight it.