The American government’s anti-drug leadership, I suggest, has not learned. Either it does not see what is happening, or it is not truthful.

In the 1999 White House National Drug Control Strategy, the most important claim made by the White House drug czar, in big red letters is, “National Anti-Drug Policy is Working.” This claim, which McCaffrey makes in every speech, and which he will repeat ad infinitum this week, is a fraud.

In common sense terms, there are four key measures of success or failure of this strategy. They are, in rough order of importance, the saving of lives. Making it harder for kids to get drugs. Hindering the drug traffickers. And, treating drug addicts, the most humane approach and the most effective strategy. Sadly, we are failing every one of these measures.

First, there are more deaths from drug abuse than ever. Deaths from drug-induced causes more than doubled, from 7,101 in 1979 to 14,843 in 1996, and the death rate has grown from 3.2 per 100,000 in 1979 to 5.6 in 1996. This data is included in Gen. McCaffrey’s Strategy.

Second, heroin and marijuana were easier for high school seniors to obtain in 1998 than at any time since the government began its annual survey of students in 1975, and crack cocaine was easier to obtain in 1998 than at any time in a decade. That’s the official government data released last winter.

Third, heroin and cocaine prices have fallen dramatically. The price of cocaine per pure gram at retail has plummeted from $379 in 1981 to $169 in 1998. The price of heroin per pure gram at retail has collapsed from $3115 in 1981 to $1800 in 1998. Heroin’s price per pure gram at wholesale in U.S. cities has plummeted from $1194 in 1981 to only $318 in 1998. This data is also here in the Strategy. Traffickers are getting more efficient and evaluate their risks as dramatically smaller.

Tied to this data is the fact that drug purity has increased shockingly. Retail purity of cocaine has risen from 40% in 1981 to 71% in 1998. Heroin purity has risen more than five times, from 4.7% in 1981 to 24.5% in 1998. Besides creating much greater risks of overdose deaths to users, especially the vulnerable novice users, this means traffickers are competing aggressively in the marketplace. These are signs drug traffickers are thriving in America.

Fourth, we are not treating drug addicts in America, the most effective and cost-effective way of dealing with the problem. In 1996, 3.3 million hard core drug addicts were untreated, almost two-thirds of those who needed treatment – greatest number in five years. That’s what is reported here in the Strategy. The research shows that treatment of addicts is the most cost-effective way to reduce all of the problems associated with drugs – here and overseas. Why aren’t we providing this treatment? Because America is not committed to solving the drug problem – it is committed to fighting the war on drugs. McCaffrey asked for $85 million for more drug treatment in FY 2000, only 11.5% of his total requested increase, a pittance for the approach the RAND Corporation says is 23 times more effective than trying to control crops in Latin America.

Delegates to this week’s drug policy conference should not be bamboozled into believing that U.S. is doing what it ought to do or that the U.S. has an effective strategy. During my nine years working on drug policy for the House Judiciary Committee, I saw that high-level policy makers would not recognize nor admit the truth about the failures of our strategy, and that is still true today.

Since 1983, when I traveled to five nations in South America accompanying a House Narcotics Committee fact-finding mission, there has been no net progress in our international strategy.

The proposed $1.5 billion in aid to Colombian security forces won’t solve the problem – it will enrich a corrupt military that violates human rights as a matter of course. The spraying of vast regions of the Andes with herbicides – poisoning water sources, livestock, ruining crops and risking the poisoning of peasant families -- will not stop the continued cultivation of coca, opium and cannabis. Sending more weapons to Colombia will not end the civil war there. It won’t stop the guerillas nor will it curb the paramilitaries. Sending U.S. advisors won’t improve the Colombian military’s competence. The deaths of American advisors already is more tragic lost lives in a futile effort.

I helped write the 1988 American law to control processing and precursor chemicals. That law hasn’t stopped the manufacture of drugs. I helped write the 1988 law prohibiting environmental destruction on Federal lands while growing or cultivating drugs. These laws have not stopped the spread of toxic chemicals spewing from amphetamine labs here in the U.S.

I urge the delegates to this week’s conference to reject the imposition on their societies of failed strategies. Use the techniques that have been effective, that respect human rights, that provide jobs and agricultural income, and that do not endanger the environment. Ask yourself how many generations of your nation will be sacrificed to a failed strategy?

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