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POLITICS & COMMUNITY by harry goldstein Don't miss Harry Goldstein's other columns on Campaign '96.

That old demon Drug has sunk its fiendish fangs into the fresh flesh of America's youth. After a decade of chanting Just Say No right along with Nancy Reagan and a Kremlin full of Drug Czars , a president who insists that he didn't inhale (speaking through White House spokesperson, Mike McCurry, who admits that he DID) is facing the biggest drug epidemic this country has ever seen--if you believe the rhetoric spewing out of the tobacco-subsidized Dole camp as well as the statistics that are issuing forth from Clinton's own administration. Kids are blowing their minds on marijuana and LSD, cocaine and methamphetamine, but instead of asking why, both Clinton and Dole are insisting on interdiction, touting the police state as the solution for all problems.

No one, except maybe the Libertarians, question the basic assumption behind current drug policy -- i.e. that all drugs not produced by pharmaceutical companies are inherently bad, thirsty leeches sucking the best minds of our generation into a permanent bad trip *and* that the US government has a responsibility to control what you put into your own body. Despite the fact that several prominent pols from both sides of the fence, from ultra conservative Bill Buckley to former Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders, have suggested that we rethink our approach to drug use and decriminalize the stuff, both Dole and Clinton seem hell bent on laying down the law and dragging more people off to jail where the American Taxpayer can house and feed offenders, a significant percentage of whom are there for marijuana-related offenses. It hasn't occurred to them that maybe more prisons and more police aren't the answers to what is, at its core, a social dilemma that no one's really talking about.

First we need to make clear distinctions between different kinds of drugs in order to class them into categories like recreational or addictive. This is something the people running for national office refuse to do because that kind of active engagement would be tantamount to admitting that the human brain is potentially a vast chemical amusement park where you can ride all the rides without leaving your house! Take marijuana, which has been wrongly classed as a Schedule I drug along with heroin and LSD -- narcotics that the government considers so dangerous, they won't even allow clinical testing, except in rare cases. Studies have shown that not only is marijuana not physically addictive, like heroin, say, or Mr. Dole's "harmless" nicotine, but that it has proven medicinal value. In November, California voters will decide whether or not to decriminalize marijuana used for medicinal purposes, such as an appetite stimulant for AIDS patients, an anti-spasmodic for MS patients, or an anti-nausea medication for chemo patients.

Another facet of the fight for marijuana legalization is championed by organizations like NORML -- recreational use. This issue goes to the core of Clinton's and Dole's justification for escalating the Drug War: does government have a right to regulate consciousness? People subject themselves to rollercoasters, "Baywatch," all kinds of booze, cigarettes and various stimulants from caffeine to guarana--all arguably mood altering and/or mind altering activities. How can it possibly be a crime to light up a joint but perfectly legal to chase a double cappucino with a pint of scotch, then maybe roam around the woods with your high powered rifle blasting away at fuzzy animals? Then there are the more intense drugs like those generally called hallucinogens like LSD, psylocibin, peyote, etc. Where are the statistics on how many people are addicted to acid? Well, there aren't any -- BECAUSE LSD ISN'T A PHYSICALLY ADDICTIVE SUBSTANCE and neither are the other hallucinogens. Of course any drug can be abused, including coffee. The key is to start teaching people about how to use drugs responsibly if they choose to use them at all. It's sort of like sex education -- kids are going to do it anyway. Why not give people the straight dope on dope instead of the fear-mongering, Reefer Madness propaganda that passes for drug education these days?

On the other hand, addictive drugs like heroin, crack, cocaine and methamphetamine (and how many people have you heard say "I could kill for a cigarette?") have a historically destructive effect on communities where use is prevalent. Crime flourishes around addictive drugs: people get hooked, need money for the next fix and will do anything, including stealing, to feed their habit. And they put a tremendous burden on the health care system when their habit turns into a disease, as is most certainly the case with cigarettes (a fact which, to his credit, Clinton has recognized). But no one talks about why people make these drugs their lives. That's because a rational dialogue about the root of the drug "problem" means digging into the rotting heart of what our society has become, a place where people feel alienated from each other and even themselves, where there is no where to go and no one to turn to, just a rock of crack or a syringe full of heroin and the promise of blissful somnabulance. It's much easier to talk about siccing the cops on the druggies and their dealers and tossing the whole lot of them behind bars than it is to discuss the scores of social and economic problems that have put people in a position to be vulnerable to serious drug addiction in the first place.

Instead of more cops, how about more counselors? Instead of more prisons, how about more teachers and better schools? Instead of more insipid political pronouncements cynically targeted to win votes from frightened citizens, how about some straight talk? Our country is already paying a terrible price in both wasted money and wasted lives because our politicians refuse to really look at our culture and how drugs function in our society, but we'll pay an even higher price if the Drug War enters a new, more draconian phase after the election is over.

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Harry Goldstein is a writer and editor living in Manhattan. His work has appeared in "Utne Reader," "American Book Review," "Promethean", AltX, word.com, and other periodicals.

© 1996 Harry Goldstein, All Rights Reserved.