That other stupid war

My friend Art Benevie had a column published in the News and Observer yesterday. I've spoken often with Art about the subject - the War on Drugs - and I always find his arguments compelling and powerful.

CHAPEL HILL - Last month San Francisco health officials met with groups that supported the idea of opening a "safe injection" center -- the first in the United States. It would be funded by the city and be limited to intravenous users of heroin, cocaine and other drugs. Addicts would bring their own drugs, receive clean needles and inject themselves under medical supervision instead of shooting up in the streets.

Advocates of the proposal believe that the creation of such a facility would reduce fatal drug overdoses and curtail the spread of HIV and hepatitis C caused by the sharing of needles.

Formidable obstacles stand in the way of this proposal: The facility would violate federal law that criminalizes the possession of such drugs, and it is certain to run into a political firestorm. So far, not one San Francisco politician publicly supports the idea. The meeting between city health officials and the groups advocating the site had hardly ended when a spokesman for U.S. drug czar John Walters blasted the notion as "poor public policy" and "a form of giving up" on curing drug addiction.

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Consider Switzerland's experience. In 1994, persuaded by favorable results of a drug maintenance program in Liverpool, England, Switzerland launched the largest and most scientifically designed trials ever attempted. Over 1,000 volunteers were selected -- hard-core heroin addicts, who were at least 20, were afflicted with serious health problems and had repeatedly failed other programs. They were offered heroin, morphine or methadone and initially opted for heroin. Addicts were allowed to adjust their own doses. They self-injected with equipment prepared by the staff, who also provided advice and supervision.

In the final report issued in July 1997 the Swiss government stated:

Within a month the patients had settled on stable and relatively low dosage levels that allowed them to dramatically improve their health and their economic and social functioning. No overdoses occurred, and no heroin was reported to have leaked into the illegal market. The percentage of addicts with stable jobs increased from 14 to 32.

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THE OFFICIAL U.S. REACTION WAS HOSTILE, and proposals to undertake similar experiments here were met with outrage. For example, in 1998 professor David Vlahov of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health suggested undertaking similar trials in Baltimore. Maryland's Democratic governor said, "It doesn't make any sense. It sends totally the wrong message."

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What a shame that America's anti-drug fervor blinds us to overwhelming evidence that medically supervised injection sites for addicts would bring enormous benefits to our society. The health and social functioning of addicts would improve; they would commit fewer crimes to get a fix; and their connection with health professionals would help many kick the habit.

In addition, safe injection sites would diminish the spread of AIDS, since, according to the Centers for Disease Control, about 30 percent of the AIDS cases in the United States -- and a majority involving children! -- are caused by dirty needles.

(Arthur Benavie is professor of economics, emeritus, at UNC-Chapel Hill. His book "Drugs: America's Holy War" is forthcoming.)

The Republican obsession with wars on everything further decimates the moral and fiscal integrity of our nation every single. The cost of the war on terror is rapidly approaching $500,000,000,000 with no end in sight. The war on drugs, this year alone, has already cost more than $44,000,000,000. It too has no end in site. And neither war has the slightest hope of producing anything of real value.