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Drug czar pushes prevention Gives SODA high praise during visit to Medford By DAVID PRESZLER National drug czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey doesn't spend much time talking about the "war on drugs" these days. Drug abuse isn't a war, he insisted Monday, it's a cancer. "Prevention is the key to lower cancer rates, and you treat it, you don't ignore it," McCaffrey said. "And you make multiple interventions." McCaffrey, who visited the Rogue Valley on Monday, said the war analogy, popularized in the 1980s, doesn't reflect what can and should be done about America's drug-abuse problem. For one thing, there's no total victory, no moment when the "war" will be won or lost. "But, if it was a war, we'd be winning," he added, noting that drug use has steadily declined over the past 15 years and that studies show only 6 percent of Americans use illegal drugs. McCaffrey outlined a shift from the enforcement-heavy tactics of the 1980s to an approach loaded with prevention and treatment -- an approach he says will save the taxpayers money in the long run. The president's top drug policy adviser made a pair of speeches in Medford on Monday, addressing the Southern Oregon Drug Awareness coalition and the Chamber of Medford/Jackson County. McCaffrey's father-in-law, Lyman Faulkner, was a SODA board member until he died last week. McCaffrey heaped praise on SODA's community coalition efforts and on the Chamber's efforts to promote drug-free workplaces, noting that curbing drug abuse is most effectively done at the local level. "There's no such thing as a national drug problem," he said. "There's a series of community drug epidemics." Though he is charged with leading national policy, he says he's not in a position to solve the problem. "Community coalitions, that's where it works or doesn't work," he told SODA. "I just have tremendous respect for what you are doing." McCaffrey emphasized the need to make sure children get through their middle-school years drug-free, saying that the most distressing drug user is "a 12-year-old smoking pot on the weekends." He said fighting the widespread use of so-called gateway drugs such as alcohol and marijuana is a key step in prevention. Though most Americans don't use drugs, McCaffrey said, drug abuse affects everyone and everyone stands to benefit from investing in treatment and prevention, financially if in no other way. He said the compulsive drug user costs taxpayers $43,000 a year if left alone. To put one in jail, costs around $26,000 annually. But treatment plans cost only $2,000 to $18,000 and can make lasting change. "It's worth it to invest some money in treatment," he says. Oregon understands this better than most states, he said, and has been one of the nation's leaders in community-based prevention and treatment. And the federal government has recognized that, he added, sending more than $32 million in drug-related resources to be spent in Oregon. Though he says treatment and prevention need more attention, McCaffrey said law enforcement still plays a crucial role. "Nothing we are doing will work if law enforcement doesn't hold the line," he said, "but they can't be expected to solve the problem." McCaffrey spoke against the legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes, a concept Oregon voters approved last fall. He said he favors researching medicinal uses of marijuana but not outside the normal scientific process used for medicine. "Put it back in the scientific, medical community," he said. "Stop having a political debate about it." McCaffrey also took time to debunk popular myths about drug abuse: that it is an inner-city, minority and youth problem, or that most drugs come from out of the country. Of the four million Americans who are chronically addicted, he said, the typical one is 31 years old and white. He also said that drug use among black Americans under age 30 is the lowest of any demographic group outside the armed services. As for the notion that foreigners fuel America's drug problem, he notes that the United States -- particularly California -- and Mexico are the world's leading producers of methamphetamine. "We produce drugs, we are not just a drug-abusing nation," he said. The thing to remember, he said, is that drug abuse is everyone's problem. "If you want to fight a war on drugs," he said, "you have to start at your own kitchen table." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA