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(COMMENTARY) DRUGS: TRUTH IS THE WRONG MESSAGE

Though drugs are bad,

An evil curse;

The War on Drugs,

May just be worse.

By Bill Collins

Recently, in Caracas, President Clinton offered this remarkable observation,

"(Drugs) spread violence to our streets and playgrounds. They corrupt and kill

law enforcement officials."

Wrong.

Drugs aren't violent. It's the war on drugs that's violent. Just like

Prohibition in the '30s. Drugs themselves destroy lives quietly, individually,

surreptitiously. They do not destroy neighborhoods through violence and crime.

It's the rigid laws against them which do that.

And now the Swiss government has found an effective way to demonstrate the

fact. After its failed experiment with "Legalizing" drugs at Needle Park, it

started instead actually giving away heroin to 1,100 hardcore addicts. These

were folk beyond hope of treatment. Blessedly, this experiment worked. Their

crime rate plummeted. Their health rate soared. Many got jobs and found

housing. Once stabilized, some even found the will to try again to kick the

habit.

But Swiss moralists, proving again that no good deed goes unpunished, forced a

referendum to abolish the program. They felt it sent the wrong message. The

public disagreed. They voted 71 to 29 percent to keep it.

Similarly last spring, a band of hardy, perhaps foolhardy, Connecticut

lawmakers proposed a similar experiment here. It was part of the drug policy

reform bill which later passed the General Assembly in amputated form. One of

the amputees was the heroin experiment, which would have been conducted at

Yale. Nutmeg moralists, too, felt it would send the wrong message. There seem

to be more of them here than in Switzerland.

But that's the trouble with truth -- it often sends the "wrong message." Take

our family's 88-year-old travel agent. She's a tough cookie. Likes to bop

around the world. Nothing gets her down. Except intractable back pain. No

medication works, and she's allergic to morphine. She'd like to try marijuana,

since it has helped others. But the doctor can't give it to her. It would send

the wrong message.

Undaunted by the argument, citizens in Arizona and California voted to

legalize medical marijuana for cases like our friend's. But their legislatures

overturned them. Here in Connecticut too, our hardy lawmakers proposed

allowing pot for severe medical cases. Amazingly, the bill passed the Health

Committee. Then it died. It sent the wrong message.

And even simple drug treatment, a much less controversial issue, is a poor

relation here. It must defer to our state's still greater addiction -- tax

cutting. Lately Connecticut's only treatment hospital, Blue Hills, nearly

closed because of lawmakers' craving to slash taxes. It seems that too many

state workers jumped at the sudden cost-cutting chance to retire early, thus

badly reducing the hospital system's ability to treat addicts. That kind of

thing happens all the time to druggies. While there are always enough prison

beds for addicts, there are never enough treatment beds. Maybe that sends a

message too.

But be of good cheer. Reform attempts continue. A few modest proposals will

hit the legislature again next spring, trying to add a little flesh to the

anorexic law which passed this year. And even Governor Rowland is reasonably

thoughtful on this issue.

Further, perhaps you yourself would like to be kept informed by Connecticut's

truth squad for drugs. If so, you can simply write or call our state's chief

legislative advocacy group. That's A Better Way, c/o Sara Sikes, Chair, 77

Sunrise Hill Road, Norwalk 06851. Or 203/847-7746. It's the right message.

(Bill Collins, a former mayor of Norwalk, is a syndicated columnist.)