No Truce in the Drug War

Finally, we are beginning to see widespread concern about our nation’s drug-abuse problems. This is a remarkable turnaround from years of public, media and government apathy.

I fear, however, that this quantum leap could lead to only a few weeks or months of hysteria--and then it’s back to business as usual. That possibility concerns me deeply. Hysteria leads to frantic searches for, and acceptance of, quick and shallow solutions--not long-term commitments. Reports that the problem has peaked are apt to be heralded as total victories. Awareness, attention and concern subside. Meanwhile, the problem grows even larger.

If such a scenario should unfold, we would be vulnerable to the worst proposed “solution” of all, decriminalization of all dangerous drugs and narcotics.

Articles advocating decriminalization have been printed in major magazines and newspapers. The theme has been consistent: Criminalization of narcotics causes crime, corruption, intolerable government costs, enormous profits for traffickers, growth of organized crime, intrusions into personal freedoms, erosion of American morality and deterioration of international relations.

They are wrong. The legalization of drugs may make them cheaper to purchase and would certainly increase the supply. But the cost, in terms of the misery that such permissiveness would create, is beyond calculation.

Proponents of legalization like to claim that this country’s experiment with Prohibition led to the rise of organized crime. They imply that organized crime could be denied its lifeblood if drugs were decriminalized. But they fail to consider that organized crime is also involved in illegal gambling, prostitution, murder for hire, extortion and influence peddling. Organized crime groups are opportunistic. They seized on Prohibition as yet another means of making money and defying the law. When alcohol was legalized, “the mob” simply turned to other illegal pursuits.

As to the issue of political corruption, the enemies of democracy have openly stated that they will become actively involved in the drug trade to obtain money to finance international terrorism and revolution. In effect, they are telling us that the flow of drugs into this nation will not decrease nor will the aforementioned political ambitions change if drug sales are legalized.

I believe that the majority of the citizens of our country deplore drug abuse and support efforts to combat it. Now what we need is for everyone to recognize the full scope of a problem for which there is no single, easy or immediate solution, and to be willing to commit themselves to an ultimate victory. There is no other rational choice.

Victory can be achieved, but it will take a tremendous coordinated nationwide enforcement effort. It will require dealing very harshly with nations that cultivate and export narcotics, with major traffickers, with street peddlers and with all those in between.

It will also require that we determine that those whose job performance affects the public’s health and safety are not drug abusers. Invasion of privacy by mandatory drug testing is a very reasonable requirement to determine a worker’s fitness and qualification to ensure the public’s safety.

Certainly, rehabilitation programs are as important to this effort as they are humane. But they are costly, and no matter how much money is committed to rehabilitation, those who do not want to get drugs out of their lives won’t be rehabilitated.

The best and least expensive road to victory over the problem lies in curbing this society’s voracious appetite for drugs. That can be done by really working at teaching our children. The Los Angeles Police Department believes in aggressive, unrelenting enforcement activity but sees the ultimate solution to the drug problem as directly related to our success at changing attitudes of future generations away from drug abuse.

Sloganizing--”Just Say No”--will not do it. Kids need to know how and why to say no, and most of all they need to develop the commitment and support of their peers to say no. The Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program co-sponsored by the Police Department and the Board of Education is accomplishing all of the above. It is in every elementary and junior high school in the city. It should be duplicated in every school across this nation.

Surrender has never had a place in a true American’s vocabulary. It has no place in our struggle against drugs. We must commit ourselves to an all-out war--a World War II-type war, not the subsequent “police actions” that had neither purpose nor objective. During World War II we were a nation united with one objective--the unconditional surrender of our enemies. We now need to unite with the same kind of objective and become a people willing to put forth the long-range national, institutional and personal commitments to victory and the unconditional surrender of our enemy--drug abuse.