CONGRESSIONAL DRUG WAR PICKING UP STEAM

What would you say if someone told you that the drug war is completely winnable -- that cocaine, heroin, marijuana and drug related crime could, in fact, be virtually eliminated ... if we really wanted to live in safe and drug-free communities? What if someone bent your ear with the outlandish idea that Congress is on a mission to create a truly "drug free America by January 2002"? You'd say, "that poor fellow, he's been lugging too much wood, prob'ly thinks cows can fly, and El Nino is real ..."

Well, let me bend your ear ... You may not believe it, but the drug war is eminently winnable and Congress is serious about winning it. In short, there is a real opportunity to return cities and communities across America to the halcyon days of community cohesion, drug-free streets, low crime and unlocked doors. In fact, the opportunity is as real as the depth of the crisis.

For sure, it is a crisis. Drugs and drug-crime are rending the fabric of families and communities, weighing down our education and health care systems, straining the resources of law enforcement, prosecutors, courts and prisons. They are changing the nature of the world our kids will inherit, the expectations they have of those around them, and the expectations they have of themselves.

Those who care about the future cannot afford to be cynics; yet look what we tolerate. Professional sports idols get arrested for drug use, and show up the next week in playoffs. An Olympic medalist tests positive for THC or marijuana, gets properly stripped of high international honor, then retrieves his medal on appeal. Prime-time television and Hollywood promote self-medicating drug use, and glorify drugs that can kill a kid in one use.

This last point is best made by a recent French study which found that marijuana not only "increases the risk of developing cancer" for the user, but "leukemia is 10 times more frequent in children born to mothers who used marijuana during pregnancy..."

A few more eye-catching numbers, on other drugs and crime. Heroin-related emergency room episodes leaped up 27 percent last year, cocaine-related episodes rose 21 percent, and "between 1993 and 1994, the number of (overall) drug-related episodes rose by 17 percent for persons aged 12 to 17."

Drug-crime followed. In 1993, "1 in 3 juvenile detainees were under the influence of drugs at the time of their offense," according to the Department of Justice. This represented a 25 percent increase in crimes committed by juveniles while on drugs in just one year. Another 1995 study indicates that "drug use and criminal activity are inextricably linked," noting that "between 50-80% of felony arrestees nationwide test positive for ... drugs at the time of arrest." Indeed, there is evidence that up to 80% of domestic violence is tied to substance abuse.

So, where is the good news? Against a backdrop of deep cuts in the federal anti-drug budget by the Clinton White House in 1993 and 1994, recent legislation offers real hope for a "drug free America." A 1996 General Accounting Office study found that "funding for drug interdiction declined by about $1 billion" between 1993 and 1995, and that "cocaine seizures in the transit zone declined from a peak of 70,336 kilograms in 1992 to 7,181 kilograms in 1995." But that was before the new Congress was elected and began pressing for fundamental reform.

In 1996, the train began to roll. Congress held dozens of high-profile hearings, including hearings with Nancy Reagan, agency heads and citizen groups. In addition, Congress pressed major anti-drug funding increases especially for programs that went directly to states, such a $25 million boost over the president's request for Byrne grants (which support state law enforcement and DARE programs), increases in the Regional Information Sharing System (which tracks criminals nationwide), and $172 million more for the Drug Enforcement Administration. That was a start.

Then, the House began pushing bold legislation. Last June, "The Drug Free Communities Act of 1997" passed Congress, a product of intensive work by Congressmen Hastert (R-IL) and Portman (R-OH). The act offers between $50,000 and $100,000 to any community in America that can sustain for six months a strong, high-participation, anti-drug coalition (including parents, teachers, business, church and civic leaders). The kernel of the law is starting community anti-drug coalitions. The aim is volunteer citizen action, with modest federal support. The train was picking up speed.
(Ed. note: This is the federal funding of thousands of local prohibitionist propaganda organizations to lobby for more of the same.)

By the end of 1997, the House had successfully passed a reauthorization bill for the Office of National Drug Control Policy -- significantly restructuring the drug war. Two words capture it -- "coordination" and "accountability." For the first time, this law gives the Drug Czar real power (budget and otherwise) to coordinate the 54 federal anti-drug agencies. At the same time, in combination with expected appropriations topping $17 billion in fiscal year 1999, it unequivocally sets six "hard targets" that the federal government must seek to meet.

Achieving these "hard targets" is premised upon consistent federal anti-drug funding, from education to interdiction, but the targets must be hit within four years. They include a reduction in overall and youth drug use to 3% nationwide; a reduction of drug availability by 80 and street purity of specific drugs by 60 %; a reduction in drug-related crime by 50 percent (including crimes committed on drugs, to get drugs and trafficking offenses); and a reduction in drug-related emergencies by 50 percent. The bill passed the House on a voice vote, and awaits action in the Senate.

Congressional anti-drug appropriations were also at a record level last year, in areas intended to make a difference. For example, the Coast Guard received an increase of roughly $35 million over 1996, DEA got a $140 million up-tick, foreign anti-drug programs received an extra $17 million over 1996, and increases were registered in programs ranging from drug prevention and treatment to law enforcement and high technology. In short, after cuts between 1993 and 1995, the engine again has a head of steam.

Perhaps most encouraging, despite the continuing square-off with Mexico and other drug trafficking countries over "drug certification" (whether they should be "certified" as "fully cooperating" with U.S. counter-narcotics efforts), there are new and serious initiatives pending. The Speaker of the House has, together with the Majority Leader of the Senate, put considerable capital behind finding permanent solutions to these twin scourges -- drugs and crime. And if the late 1980's and progress in places like New York City are any indication, the effort will succeed.

Realistically, every good idea may not become law in 1998, but new ideas are in the mix. They include a A Drug-Free Workplace Act, with market incentives for small and medium businesses to establish drug-free workplace programs (most big companies have them; very few smaller companies can afford to); a Drug Free Borders Act, focusing on high technology solutions, seizure bonuses, better management and tying drug policy to trade policy; a Drug Free Drivers Act, tying public safety to pre-license drug testing; a Drug Free Prison Treatment Act, using the leverage of federal and state incarceration to get addicts into treatment; a Drug Free Clearinghouse Act, with information on drug abuse for parents, teachers and others; a Drug Free Media Campaign to pair public and private monies and shift the television culture away from a drugs and back toward drug prevention; and a serious drug free transactions bill, to put an end to non-bank money laundering; a Drug-Free Hemisphere's Act, putting resources and emphasis on halting the drugs where they are produced and refined (especially in Colombia, Bolivia and Peru); and an array of new "right-wrong, no-use" Drug Prevention initiatives.

The Speaker of the House is serious about making America virtually drug free again, and the Chairman of his 32-member Drug Free America Task Force, Congressman J. Dennis Hastert, is architecting a comprehensive effort to bring these ideas to life. So, while cynicism abounds, Congress is taking sure and steady steps.

Drugs and drug crime are scarring the face of America. But for the first time in recent memory, there is real hope. There are no silver bullets, and Congress cannot solve this problem alone. But this war is winnable, if we have -- as communities and as a nation -- the political and personal will to win it. Parents and teachers need to step forward and talk; communities need to create anti-drug coalitions with new federal encouragement. Kids need to have an environment in which they can expect the best of themselves, and they need to know that doing so does actually matter. The coincidence of interests is too great -- among parents, kids, teachers, business, religious and civic leaders, and law enforcers -- not to act now, and together. We can make a difference, and those young Americans who look to us for their physical security and moral leadership will one day be grateful that we did.

Robert B. Charles*

* Robert B. Charles is Staff Director and Chief Counsel to the U.S. House Subcommittee on National Security, International Affairs and Criminal Justice. He holds a J.D. from Columbia Law School, an M.A. in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University, and an A.B. from Dartmouth College. He clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, is a member of the bars of New York, Connecticut and Maine, and has served both in the Bush White House and as a civil litigator. He is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has written extensively on legal issues, from constitutional law to national drug policy.

(Ed. note: Goebbels had a Ph. D.)

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