Interview
with "Drug Czar" John Walters, The Christian Science Monitor,
March 13, 2002
Monitor
Breakfast: John P. Walters
Selected quotations from a Monitor Breakfast with John P. Walters, director
of the US Office of National Drug Control Policy.
By David T. Cook
On how the war on
terrorism affects drug control efforts:
"You hear different
opinions about this. The reason you hear different opinions is that we
don't have perfect knowledge of what is actually flowing so sometimes
it is hard to tell the difference on the street level for some period
of time because there is a certain amount in the pipeline. ...We certainly
don't see reports immediately after Sept. 11 of critical shortages on
the street which would be an immediate and most prominent indicator. We
have seen more seizures at the border we also have seen more seizures
at airports because of increased airport security. And I think there is
a general consensus -- although there is always a debate about these things
-- that there is less effort to move drugs through the airport because
of tighter security and some border areas...But what we are trying to
do is integrate what we are doing with the changes in homeland security
so we get a little more stable and consistent interdiction effort along
the borders."
On success of ads
that say buying drugs supports terrorism:
"We did extensive focus group testing - more than any of the more
than 200 kinds of ads that have been part of the ad campaign since its
inception. We found that it had an extremely powerful effect on both young
people, young adults, and parents. We didn't expect parents - parents
talked about how this would be an important and powerful way to talk to
the young people. The dimension that I think is important here is that
we have done a lot of ads taking about the harm drugs do to you. Young
people have some concern about their well being but they are at an age
where the feel more invulnerable sometimes. So these ads appeal to their
idealism -what do you want to be seeing in the world. "
On the president's
drug message during his trip next week to Latin America:
"In order to effectively control drug production in this hemisphere,
we have to stimulate other economic growth and growth in the producing
countries. We are doing more to destabilize illicit trade in places like
Columbia ....we can't successfully create and expand the kind of partnership
we need to have in the region if we are not going to expand trade. We
understand that the drug control policy and our cooperation with them
on fighting drugs and drug organizations is ongoing. But the concomitant
part of that for bringing poor farmers and developing those countries
and their democratic institutions is economic development, and that is
what the president is going to focus on."
On the most important
part of the US anti-drug effort:
"Prevention, no question. It is the most cost effective thing to
do because we know from long research that if young people do not start
experimenting with drugs in their teen aged years, they are unlikely to
have a substance abuse problem later on. They are unlikely to start later
on. So if you want to talk about how we inoculate people from the drug
problem, keep young people from experimenting with drugs during their
teenage years. That has the effect of reducing the number of people who
are dependent and need treatment, it reduces the crime associated with
the drug market, and all the other collateral harms. The challenge in
that area is that it requires not just a specific government program to
do something, but it requires enlisting the country as a whole..."
On whether enough
drug treatment is available:
"The reason the president has called for the unprecedented increase
in treatment spending is because we don't think we have enough services
at this point. What we also know is we haven't done a good enough job
of putting treatment where the need is and that is one of the things we
are doing - the way we are applying these resources... We know that drug
addition is not distributed on the basis of population, it has places
of focus. So we have another program... that is based on demonstrated
need and the ability to meet that need..."
On the nature of
drug offenders in prison:
"There has been a considerable disservice done by (those who say
that) there are a lot of low level, non-violent offenders. I believe that
any serious look at the prison population... (that takes into account
prisoners' prior records, would reveal that) the vast majority of those
incarcerated in state institutions are violent of repeat offenders of
a serious enough nature to deserve the imprisonment. It is not a matter
of some kid caught with a baggie of marijuana at a traffic stop who got
slammed into prison. That is a caricature that I think it is about time
we stopped repeating because it is so blatantly not true."
On why drugs should
be illegal:
"The reason that drugs are illegal is because of the harm they do
to individuals particularly. I would think the sensitivity here is because
of the harm they do to individuals in a democratic society - that they
take away the ability of individuals to act as free, responsible citizens.
Their lives collapse down to drug use. That is what drug addiction is
really about, that is what drug legalization is about... As I said, 25
percent of the people in the country who are substance dependent are teenagers.
We have never had that rate of young people. So to present this as 30
year-olds who are going to have fun on the weekend and who cares what
they do with themselves is not the reality of drug addiction in this country."
As of March 13, 2002,
this document was also available online at http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0313/p25s01-usmb.html 