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Whether “Traffic” wins the Academy Award for Best Picture is now almost academic but the lessons of the picture have prompted an important national dialogue. In last week's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on drug policy, “Traffic” played a leading role. Recent articles by former drug czar William Bennett, and by former HEW Secretary Joseph Califano, used “Traffic” to teach about drugs. ABC News "Nightline" and The New Republic are using the movie to study drug policy this week. Hardly any discussion about drug policy takes place now without referring to “Traffic.”

Surprisingly, two months after the inauguration, there is an unembarrassed silence from the Bush White House about the identity of the next drug czar, the last cabinet-level position unfilled.

Three-quarters of the American public say the war on drugs is being lost, according to a survey released by the Pew Research Center on March 21. The annual data released by the White House documents that failure clearly: Illicit drugs are causing more deaths, illicit drug prices are lower while purity is higher and drugs are widely available to youth.

In the climax in “Traffic,” the new drug czar steps up to White House microphones to unveil a “new” 10-point anti-drug package. Knowing his daughter is a desperate addict, he is unable to utter the predictable cliches and suddenly walks out. He realizes that every addict is someone’s kid whose life is worth saving.

We need to abandon “sacred cows” that are obstacles to an effective anti-drug effort. We need new ideas to save lives, to help keep kids from being hurt by drugs and to reduce violence and corruption. Following is a 10-point package the new drug czar should adopt.

1. Narcan (naloxone) terminates the coma of a heroin overdose. All emergency personnel should be trained and equipped to use it. We should provide opiate users with Narcan to inject when overdoses occur. This will save thousands of lives a year.

2. Establish a “no questions asked” policy when overdosing drug users go to emergency rooms or call 911 for an ambulance. In “Traffic” we saw high school kids dump an overdosing friend in a hospital driveway to avoid police. Parents should tell their children that if something terrible is happening to call immediately and that they will help them, not punish them.

3. Prevent overdoses and poisonings by enabling drug users to test drugs for potency and impurities. The “rave” culture tries to protect itself by testing ecstasy pills for dangerous impurities. Teach recovering addicts that they have lost their tolerance to opiates. If they relapse, their old doses may kill them.

4. To catch drug dealers who sell adulterated or counterfeit drugs, give immunity and incentives to drug users to turn them in.

5. Reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, and other diseases by promoting and funding sterile syringe exchange. This common sense idea saves lives and has been supported by every research body that studied it, including President Bush’s AIDS Commission, the Centers for Disease Control, the Institute of Medicine, the American Medical Association, and others.

6. Protect travelers and motorists by assuring that pilots and vehicle operators do not fly or drive while impaired by testing for actual impairment. Testing blood or urine for past use of illegal drugs does not find impairment. After every accident, complete drug testing should be done.

7. Expand drug treatment availability and effectiveness by providing methadone, LAAM and other maintenance drugs through general practitioners and to addicts in prisons and jails. Drug treatment health insurance should be on a parity with other coverage. Coordinate local drug treatment intake to maximize access to programs and to match addicts to the most suitable treatment. Permit parents to keep and care for their young children while parents are in treatment.

8. Assure that anti-drug education is evaluated and effective. America’s largest teen-age anti-drug program has been the ineffective D.A.R.E. curriculum. Like sex education, drug education should include abstinence and reality-based, harm reduction elements and should encourage honest dialogue with parents and teachers.

9. Focus federal criminal justice resources only on the biggest, most violent and dangerous traffickers. Only ten percent of federal drug cases have been high-level offenders. Repeal mandatory minimum sentences that give minor offenders kingpin sentences.

10. Medical patients with serious or terminal illness should never be denied the proper medication, whether opiates or marijuana.

To carry out such a lifesaving, prevention and public health oriented plan, the next drug czar should have at least one quality: a background in public health. He or she should be unafraid of entrenched drug enforcement bureaucrats and anti-drug blow-hards and not looking for a promotion.

Someone like former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop comes to mind.

Mr. Sterling, president of the non-profit Criminal Justice Policy Foundation in Silver Spring, MD was counsel to the House Judiciary Committee, principally responsible for anti-drug legislation, from 1979 to 1989.