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Bad News for Drug Warriors
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One week ago, two seemingly unrelated news items were posted to the MAP archive; one was the Salon piece by veteran ONDCP observer Dan Forbes who scooped the world by identifying John P. Walters as the Bush Administration's choice to be the new drug czar.
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http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n687/a09.html
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The second was the original AP report that a plane carrying American missionaries was shot down by a Peruvian Air Force jet.
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http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n697/a02.html
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As the week progressed, it became apparent that the two stories are not only closely related, but together, may represent an important watershed in the public's understanding of just how feckless and destructive our drug policy really is.
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Those who follow drug policy news closely have been aware for some time of the growing disconnect between public opinion and those who implement policy. This was first manifest when Arizona and California passed 'medical marijuana' initiatives in 1996 over the strenuous objections of high ranking state and federal officials; the perception was further strengthened by passage of similar initiatives in 1998.
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In 2000, California's Proposition 36 mandating treatment instead of incarceration extended the scope of the public's dissatisfaction with the drug war into the realm of its reliance on punishment.
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Significantly, in passing 36, voters disregarded the opposition of many of the media sources which had supported 215. Subsequently, the enthusiastic reception accorded "Traffic" and the results of the latest Pew Survey have suggested to thoughtful columnists and editorial writers that public dissatisfaction with the drug war may run even deeper than they first suspected.
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In this setting, the nomination of a proponent of interdiction like Walters, who recently spoke scornfully of the very concept of 'treatment,' must be a bitter disappointment for those who had read the failure of the Bush team to quickly select a drug czar as a shift away from his father's hard line on drugs.
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When the Senate begins to question Walters, many will also discover "Body Count," the harshly doctrinaire book he co-authored with Bennett and DiIulio in 1997, an effort for which the British phrase "over the top" seems particularly apt.
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Peru's unique contribution to the strategy of interdiction had been to use military jets to shoot down small planes suspected of ferrying coca paste to Colombian labs; like most interdiction strategies, its "success" merely forced traffickers to use other tactics, so-- like all interdiction techniques ever devised-- it must be judged a strategic failure.
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The discovery that not only is it still being used, but had resulted in the killing of a young mother and her infant daughter and was initiated at the behest a US spy plane could not have come at a worse time for our drug warriors. As the Peruvian story unfolds with the all-too predictable efforts of the two governments to point fingers at each other, it seems to be striking a chord with a public already far more disenchanted by the drug war than bureaucrats and politicians realize.
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The missionary plane was shot down only a week ago; the story may yet blow over quickly, but by underscoring the futility and destructive nature of the new drug czar's favorite 'drug control' strategy, it has guaranteed the policy he represents will receive considerable hostile scrutiny in the weeks to come.
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by Tom O'Connell
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About the author
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