Editorial:
The
Crusaders
10/8/99
Adam J. Smith, Associate Director, [email protected] Liddy Dole, she of the floundering presidential campaign and chemically-enhanced husband, issued a proclamation this week (10/8) indicating that if she is elected, the American people can look forward to a "crusade with the goal of a drug-free America." "I do not and will not -- under any circumstances -- support the legalization of marijuana or any other drug," she assured supporters. And Dole apparently expects that she will be more successful than the current Commander-in-chief in convincing young people to stay away from the stuff, noting that the President "lacks the moral authority to send a message that drugs aren't cool." Putting aside for a moment the question of whether American teenagers will take seriously Elizabeth Dole's proclamations on what is and isn't "cool," it is interesting to note that the issue of legalization has become relevant in the current campaign. And it has become an issue despite the fact that no one from either major party has called for even modest reform, much less a wholesale rethinking of our drug policy. The politicos don't seem to know what to do with this one. Last week, President Clinton vetoed the DC Appropriations bill, citing excessive "social riders" attached to the legislation. Several Republicans claimed that Clinton's real objective was to veto an amendment which would have overturned the just-released results of last November's medical marijuana initiative, which was passed overwhelmingly by District voters. In a statement released immediately after the veto, Congressman Ernest Istook (R-OK) proclaimed that "President Clinton has just surrendered in America's war against drugs." Istook added, "I'm appalled that the President of the United States would throw away (the bill) just to support legalizing drugs." Imagine, Bill Clinton, whose two terms have seen drug arrests and drug war budgets soar to record levels, has really been a closet legalizer all this time. Who'd have guessed? This week, in response to New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson's well-publicized call for legalization, Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey penned an op-ed to refute him. McCaffrey claims that it is "fiction" to say that our drug policy is a failure. To back this up, he cites statistics showing that drug use was down 13% last year among 8-12 year-olds. The problem, however, is that few children of that age use drugs in any year, making the reduction, in real numbers, almost meaningless. What is real is that despite all of our efforts, overdoses and emergency room admissions are at record levels, as are purity levels of drugs sold on the street, while the price of drugs has never been lower. Sound like a success? McCaffrey further states that it is "fiction" to call our efforts a "war." McCaffrey says "wars are waged by armies using weapons to kill enemies" while "the goal of the National Drug Control Strategy is to educate young people to prevent them from ever using drugs." Funny he should say that at the very moment that Congress is debating how many hundreds of millions of dollars in additional military aid it will send to the ruthless and corrupt Colombian military. Domestically, two-thirds of our federal drug budget is slated for enforcement, with one-third going to treatment, prevention and education combined. Nationally, more than one-third of young black males is under criminal justice supervision. The drug war (or perhaps, as with past "non-wars" McCaffrey would rather we call it a "police action") is the driving force behind this horrifying reality. The fact is that most politicians still believe that they can frighten the public with by crying "legalization," the new "L" word, and they may be right, for the time being. But voter initiatives over the past several years, along with high-profile defections such as Johnson's and the editorial boards of numerous major newspapers, have begun to make things just a little uncomfortable for the drug warriors. They are having a difficult time defending a system of prohibition which has wreaked havoc on the justice system, civil liberties and state and federal budgets, while the percentage of kids who claim that drugs are "easy" to get continues to rise. This week Liddy Dole, whose chances for the Republican presidential nomination are just slightly better than Larry Flynt's, promised that she would never support the legalization of drugs and said that that if elected, she'd wage a "crusade" for a drug-free America. At the same time, all across the country, politicians and their appointees are falling over themselves to twist facts and frighten voters about the drug-induced apocalypse to come. Their protestations and exhortations, far from warding off the inevitable collapse of prohibition, actually hasten its demise. Because the more light that is cast upon the darkness of this dirty war, the louder will be the call for peace. In the short-term, it is impossible to tell whether the drug warriors will win the battle, implementing even more punitive measures in an effort to make their policy work, before the pressure to end the war finally comes to a head. The only thing for certain is that if Liddy Dole does manage to become President of these United States, we can rest assured that Viagra will be legal for at least four more years.
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