Drug Problem Seems to Be Bearable : If It Wasn’t, We’d Look for Fresh Solutions That Might Work

The United States has the drug problem that it deserves. We are unwilling to abandon “solutions” that have not worked, or to implement new solutions that might make a difference.

About a year ago, spurred by a seemingly terrifying increase in the use of crack, a particularly potent form of cocaine, the drug problem became front-page news again. Our new national habit became a source of renewed alarm and of calls for yet another “war on drugs.” The public clamored for federal action, and the President and Congress obliged, providing new programs and funding--primarily for law enforcement. U.S. troops were sent to the Bolivian jungle to root out cocaine processing plants. Education programs for young people received increased support.

Despite all the furor, our basic law enforcement approach to controlling the drug problem did not change: One year later the drug scourge only occasionally makes front pages but remains firmly in our neighborhoods and schools.

The federal Office of Technology Assessment calls the drug war “fragmented,” and honest law enforcement officials admit that the flow of drugs cannot be substantially staunched. Hard drugs are readily available across the United States, drug-related crime has not abated, and needle-sharing among intravenous drug users may be the leading cause of AIDS among heterosexuals. Sporadic crackdowns on dealers have put the courts into judicial gridlock.

Law enforcement has had its usual share of stunningly successful drug busts, and sensible education programs like DARE continue apace, but the drug problem is as bad as ever. Major social, cultural and economic factors beyond our rational control may influence levels of drug use to some degree, but present policies simply cannot make much difference. Indeed, many thoughtful commentators claim--controversially, to be sure--that present policies created the drug problem and now perpetuate it.

Impartial observers have recognized for decades our impotence in controlling drug abuse, and they have offered various solutions. Those addicted to the law enforcement approach cry out for more resources and changes in the law. But there is simply not enough money to provide law enforcement with the manpower and technology that would be required to curb supply and demand for a product that some people want so much and that promises such monstrous profits for its producers and suppliers. Moreover, we would risk turning our nation into a police state. Stiffer penalties for dealers haven’t helped, either.

Law enforcement is not to blame for our failure to control drugs, but providing more resources for the same approach will only produce more of the same problem.

Others favor the international approach, hoping to persuade or to force other drug- producing nations to eradicate their domestic production. But the unreliability of many of these nations’ political and law enforcement officials and the demands of Realpolitik make this approach infeasible. Further, even if we curb production in one country, another country will immediately fill the gap. Thailand, for instance, is the newest nation to become a major marijuana producer in response to some successes in cutting production elsewhere.

Some experts recommend that the government simply “buy up” the drug supply, but Colombian and Bolivian farmers are not stupid--this approach would only encourage increased production. And many Americans simply cannot stomach using tax dollars to buy dope.

Drug education and treatment are also prescribed to help us kick our habit. Drug education is a perfectly sensible idea, but its efficacy is limited. Kids recognize that drugs produce what they perceive to be desirable short-run psychological effects, and they know that many kids who try drugs do not become degraded, miserable addicts. Treatment, too, is a sensible idea, but it is expensive. And, more depressing, clearly successful treatments for the abuse of hard drugs have not yet been discovered.

Many persons from various points on the political spectrum have called for different forms of decriminalization. But such proposals are so contrary to the moralistic streak in American culture that even cautious and apparently logical schemes cannot get a hearing.

Apparently the only acceptable approach that we are willing to pay for is the one that we have now--primarily law enforcement at present funding levels. But this, even if boosted with substantial new resources, will permit an unacceptable amount of drug use and abuse, and other drug-related problems like crime, corruption and disease.

Perhaps our drug problem isn’t so unacceptable after all. If we really thought that the problem was unbearable, we would admit that our present response is ineffective and we would try something new. But we stubbornly refuse to change our policies, which leads me to believe that we think the present problem is bearable, and that we therefore have the problem that we deserve.