#202 Failed Drug Czars Urge Future Czar To Make Things Worse

Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2001
Subject: #202 Failed Drug Czars Urge Future Czar To Make Things Worse

Failed Drug Czars Urge Future Czar To Make Things Worse

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DrugSense FOCUS Alert # 203 Thursday, March 22, 2001

Well it seems that former Drug Czars may have been failures in their
job at solving America’s drug policy problems, but they still have
plenty of advice for the new Czar, a position yet to be filled by new
President G.W. Bush.

In this week’s Miami Herald, former Czar William Bennett and an
earlier predecessor, Robert DuPont (White House Drug Chief under Nixon
and Ford) get loose with their ADVICE FOR THE NEXT DRUG CZAR.

Their eight point analysis is a regurgitation of basic Drug War myths,
most notably two slams against the ‘legalizers’ who teach us that the
War on Drugs is lost, and that we should not believe that.

Interestingly, the Herald also ran a somewhat opposing viewpoint
titled OUR LONG LOST WAR ON DRUGS, see http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01.n491.a02.html
which focused on the overall public reaction and response to the movie
‘Traffic’.

PLEASE write a letter today to the Miami Herald to not only dispute
the Czars’ article, but also possibly to commend them for printing two
points of view. If you wish to focus on refuting the Czars, may we
suggest that you include a PS with a thanks for balanced editing?

It’s not what others do, it’s what YOU do.

You can make a difference.

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Contact Info

Source: Miami Herald (FL)
Contact: heralded@herald.com
Address: One Herald Plaza, Miami FL 33132-1693

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ARTICLE

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01.n491.a08.html
Newshawk: Ginger
Pubdate: Tue, 20 Mar 2001
Source: Miami Herald (FL)
Copyright: 2001 The Miami Herald
Contact: heralded@herald.com
Address: One Herald Plaza, Miami FL 33132-1693
Fax: (305) 376-8950
Website: http://www.herald.com/
Forum: http://krwebx.infi.net/webxmulti/cgi-bin/WebX?mherald
Author: William J. Bennett, and Robert L. Dupont
Note: William J. Bennett, co-chair of the Partnership for a Drug-Free
America, served as the 1989-1990 director of the Office of National Drug
Control Policy. Robert L. DuPont, president of the Institute for Behavior
and Health, was the White House drug chief under Presidents Nixon and Ford
and the first director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in 1973-1978.

ADVICE FOR THE NEXT DRUG CZAR

Gov. Jeb Bush recently held a summit on drug policy in Tallahassee. He
reiterated the ambitious plan announced in 1999: to reduce the use of
illegal drugs in Florida by 50 percent over five years.

We hope that President Bush will follow his brother’s example and
fight aggressively to reduce drug use. As former heads of the nation’s
fight against illegal drugs, we offer him this advice:

* Prevention is the best medicine. The drug czar’s most important job
is to promote a clear message: Drug use is dangerous. The intellectual
elites laughed at Nancy Reagan’s motto, “Just Say No.” Children did
not, for it was simple and effective.

* Support parents’ groups. During the 1980s, when drug use among
children plummeted ( decreasing 63 percent among high school seniors
); they were the leaders in the anti-drug movement. Bush already has
taken steps toward this goal in announcing his intention to fund the
training of a nationwide Parents Drug Corps.

* Prepare for new drug threats. While the crack-cocaine epidemic of
the 1990s has passed, methamphetamine and Ecstasy are growing in
popularity, especially among the young. In 1999 more than a million
Americans used meth, more than used crack and almost three times as
many as used heroin. Meth is devastating and provides a high that
lasts six times as long as that of crack or cocaine. These new
synthetic drugs are cheap and far too easy to obtain; many of them are
manufactured in the United States.

* Supply reduction is demand reduction. When drugs are more plentiful,
cheaper and purer, more people become addicted. Increased drug supply
leads to higher levels of drug demand and to greater amounts of social
harm. We need to be firm in pursuing, arresting and punishing those
who sell and traffic in illegal drugs.

* Develop a plan for interdiction. Simply spending more money to
intercept drugs overseas and crossing our borders is insufficient. We
need a well-developed supply-reduction strategy that takes into
account political, military and geographic factors.

* Law enforcement and treatment work together. Those who want to move
the war on drugs from the criminal to the medical arena neglect the
fact that laws against drug use promote effective treatment.
Successful treatment is a function of the longevity of treatment, and,
for most addicts, the longevity of treatment is a function of
coercion, being forced into treatment – by a loved one, an employer or
by the law.

* Fight legalization. More threatening than the efforts to medicalize
drugs are the efforts to legalize drugs. These efforts – often well
funded – argue that the costs of waging a war on drugs outweigh the
benefits.

The advocates of drug legalization ignore the human costs of overdose
deaths, drug- addicted newborns, broken homes and broken hearts.

* Speak the truth about the war on drugs. We need to counter a
pernicious myth cited by drug-legalization supporters: that we have
lost the war on drugs. That is not so.

The number of Americans currently using illegal drugs peaked in 1979,
when 25.4 million people used drugs monthly or more often. By 1992
that number was down to 12 million – an achievement that is even more
impressive, considering that the population increased by 25 million
over the same 13-year period. In Florida, the rate of youth drug use
is the third-lowest in the nation.

With the right combination of efforts on the legal, international,
medical and moral fronts, we – in Florida and in America – can reduce
drug use even more.

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SAMPLE LETTER

To the editors:

The two opposing viewpoints expressed in Tuesday’s Herald were very
interesting as readers were able to compare the counsel and viewpoints
of former Drug Czars Bennett and DuPont against the reality of
America’s drug policy efforts in the year 2001.

Dupont was one of the initiators of Nixon’s War on Drugs while
Bennett, who carried the torch for former President Bush now continues
to preach his flawed message via his association with the PDFA.

Most notable in the contrast was the former Czars’ stern
recommendation that the incoming Czar not be ‘fooled by the legalizers
who say the War on Drugs is lost’. While meanwhile, via the opposing
column and it’s references to the movie “Traffic”, we are presented
with the stark and real evidence that the policies of the past 30
years are wreaking untold havoc on our populace, their families and
overall civil liberties.

The new Czar should take to heart the movie’s most poignant message
and know that ‘a War on Drugs is a war against our own friends and
families’, as so eloquently stated by the fictional Drug Czar
portrayed by Michael Douglas. It is simply not possible to coerce our
fellow free citizens into healthy lifestyles via the gun, the badge or
the prison cell.

Rather we will only solve America’s very real problems with drug abuse
when we transfer this war from the military and law enforcement arena
back to the public health arena it properly belongs in.

Sincerely,
Steve Heath

contact info

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IMPORTANT: Always include your address and telephone number
Please note: If you choose to use this letter as a model please modify
it at least somewhat so that the paper does not receive numerous copies
of the same letter and so that the original author receives credit for
his/her work.
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TARGET ANALYSIS Miami Herald Circulation 433,000 Subscribers

Is the Herald Biased?

It appears that this newspaper may have a bias against letters which
question the War on Drugs as there are many similar sized newspapers
in the U.S. from which we have dozens, if not hundreds of published
letters in the MAP published letter archives. For the Miami Herald
there are only eleven!

Thus showing reader interest by sending this newspaper letters is very
important.

The Herald tends to publish shorter LTEs, ranging from 64 to 225 words
for the body of the LTE, with an average of 148 words.

You may review the 11 letters published by the Herald in the MAP
published letter archives by clicking this link

http://www.mapinc.org/mapcgi/ltedex.pl?SOURCE=Miami+Herald

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Prepared by Steve Heath and
Stephen Young – http://www.maximizingharm.com
Focus Alert Specialist