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The first battlefront is at the
border. Federal agents must patrol the 8,426 miles of deeply
indented Florida coastline and
2,067-mile border with Mexico. This is a formidable task, but
vast distances are not the only
problem.
The smugglers have almost unlimited funds and some of the best equipment
available.
Fortunately, the federal interdiction forces (namely customs, the DEA, and
the INS) are
improving their capability.Customs
forces have been given an increase in officers, and all are
getting more sophisticated
equipment.
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The second battlefront is law
enforcement at home. Police must crack down with more arrests,
more convictions, longer sentences, and more seizures of drug dealers'
assets. Unfortunately,
law enforcement successes pale when compared with the volume of drug
traffic. Even the most
effective crackdowns seem to do little more than move drugs from one
location to another.
Drug enforcement officers rightly feel both outgunned and under funded. In
the 1980s, the
budget for the city of Miami's vice squad unit for an entire year was less
than the cost of just
one episode of the TV show
Miami Vice.
An effective weapon on this battlefront is a 1984 law that makes it easier
to seize the assets of
drug dealers before conviction. In some cities, police have even confiscated
the cars of
suburbanites who drive into the city
to buy crack.
But attempts to deter drug dealing
have been limited by flaws in the criminal justice system. A
lack of jail cells prevents significant prosecution of drug dealers. And
even if this problem were
alleviated, the shortage of judges
would still result in the quick release of drug pushers.
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A third battlefront is drug testing. Many government and business
organizations are
implementing testing on a
routine basis in order to reduce the demand for drugs.
The theory is simple. Drug testing is a greater deterrent to drug use than
the remote possibility of
going to jail. People who know they
will have to pass a urine test in order to get a job are going
to be much less likely to dabble in
drugs. In 1980, 27 percent of some 20,000 military
personnel admitted to using drugs in the previous 30 days. Five years later,
after drug testing
was implemented, the proportion dropped to 9 percent.
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A fourth battleground is drug treatment. Those who are addicted to drugs
need help. But the major question is
who should provide the treatment and who should foot the bill. Private
hospital programs are now a $4 billion-a-year business with a daily cost of
as much as $50per bed per day. This is clearly out of the reach of addicts
who do not have employers or
insurance companies who can pick up the costs.
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A fifth battleground is education. Teaching children the dangers of
drugs can be an important
step in helping them to learn to say no to drugs. The National Institute on
Drug Abuse estimates
that 72 percent of the nation's elementary- and secondary-school children
are being given some
kind of drug education.
The battle for drugs will continue as long as there is a demand. Families,
churches, and the
society at large must work to fight
the scourge of drugs in our country.
