The savage drug wars which occurred recently in Mexico, especially on the northern border with America, have brought into sharp focus the growing menace of the drug trade to the United States. They should also focus attention on the American appetite for drugs, what is fuelling that appetite, and how, on the demand side, that appetite can be curbed.

The inconvenient truth that many would not wish to admit is that the American appetite for drugs is at the centre of the perpetuation of the drug crisis as its horrible consequences around the globe demonstrate. In terms of expenditure on illicit drugs and on the illegal use of legal drugs (as in prescription medications), no other nation on the face of the earth can outspend America. Singularly, the country is responsible for the promotion, maintenance and survival of the multi-billion-dollar drug trade across the globe. This is the inconvenient truth that we would rather deny.

On a recent trip to Mexico, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke to the truth of America’s relationship to the drug trade. She asserted that the US demand for illegal drugs and the illegal trade in guns that attends it is largely responsible for the drug war that has now subsided in Mexico.

No one can deny the accuracy of Mrs Clinton’s remarks. She was not only brave in her assertions, but spoke the truth about a matter of which many Americans would prefer to live in denial. The sad truth is that American drug policy over the years has failed. While smaller states such as Jamaica are pressured to cauterise the supply of drugs to America, not much is being done by the Americans themselves to address seriously the demand problem at home which is the real fuel for the drug crisis. The only people who have succeeded over the years are the traffickers and their allied supports. They have become more ingenious and successful at what they do while governments have remained impotent in making any real dent in their operations.

Mrs Clinton did not elaborate on this, but now that she has admitted that America’s appetite for drugs has become a real national security issue, what does the government plan to do about it? What is to be done about the gargantuan American appetite for drugs? What is it in the American psyche and emotional make-up that contributes to this huge craving for an escape from reality which drugs provide?

The answers to these questions are obviously not easy, but they have to be asked. One of the reasons for the failure of American drug policy over the years is that there has been a greater emphasis placed on the supply side of the equation than the demand. Efforts have been concentrated on stopping drugs going into the country while the demand side has been largely ignored. The question has not been fully answered as to why Americans have such an insatiable appetite for drugs of all description.

Although the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration has reported that drug use in the various categories of hard and prescription drugs has remained relatively stable between 2006 and 2007, the level of drug addiction in the population is still frightening. While illicit drug use among the nation’s adolescents has declined, illicit use of prescription drugs (especially oxycontin and vicodin) between the 18 to 25 age groups has risen.

The bottom line is that drug addiction continues to be a serious menace to the health of the society. Now it has become a national security concern more than it has ever been. Policymakers in Washington seem not to be getting the message of the risks to society posed by an increasing population of drug addicts. Hardly any mention was made of it in the last presidential election campaign. In this time of crisis in many states, subsidies to drug programmes often become the first casualties of any termination of funding.

The inconvenient truth to be recognised is that every American who uses an illegal drug must be told that he or she is contributing to the demise of America. Directly or indirectly he or she is contributing to every sale that is made and every gun that is exchanged for drugs. Furthermore, they are unwitting accomplices in the corruption of national institutions and the undermining of law and order in the society. They are contributors to the wrecking of families and the cauterisation of the promise of our young.

People must be educated to the support that is available through therapeutic intervention if they find themselves faced with problems and headed down the road of addiction. Government policy must be aimed toward supporting such programmes increasingly with grants. There are alternatives, and part of dealing with the demand side is to present and educate people to those alternatives.

The president must use the bully pulpit of the presidency to talk more to this issue of drug addiction and encourage people to the available alternatives. Finally, education regarding the menace of drug addiction to society must become a viable part of the curriculum of schools starting from grade 8 to 12. It is time that we end the hypocrisy concerning drug addiction and become addicted to the truth, however inconvenient, of the danger that we all face from the illicit drug trade.

stead6655@aol.com

www.drraulston.com