Editor's note
We received an unprecedented number of passionate, thoughtful responses to "Mission Accomplished" in War on Drugs? A representative sampling begins below, the first in a three-part series.

Achievements Don't Mean the War is Won
While JTO has both brought John Burnham’s article to a wider readership and debunked his simplistic conclusion, I am left wondering whose agenda is behind his article. His spin on the drug czar meeting smacks of political oversimplification.  If we continue to oversimplify this major public health challenge, we will all be the losers. 
 
Here in Baltimore, our new Health Commissioner, Joshua Sharfstein, began his term by reviewing 15 years of public health statistics related to our investment in substance abuse treatment. Speaking at a conference sponsored by Baltimore City and Open Society Institute in June, Dr. Sharfstein cited significant decreases in new HIV infections, drug-related deaths, violent crime and other public health measures correlated with our tripling of treatment capacity.  Both public and private investment was mobilized here for more than a decade, and the results are telling.  But we are declaring no Mission Accomplished or War Won. 
 
Rather, our focus in Baltimore is on strengthening our publicly funded system of addiction treatment and continuing to build capacity to address unmet needs. We endorse former Drug Czar Dogoloff’s view of the importance of making treatment available to all who seek it. Our achievements do not lead us to dismiss the drug war as won. Instead, we take pride in our ongoing, informed, and multi-dimensional effort to meet the goal of treatment on demand, and we are tackling the next wave of system improvements. I wish our national leadership could show similar staying power.
  
Rebecca Ruggles
Baltimore, MD

"As far as I am concerned the war has not even started"
I would like to know why my daughter Meggin is in a box on a counter in our trailer if we have already won the war on drugs. Our 22-year-old daughter died on February 28th, 2005 from an overdose of heroin. She was living in Maryland at the time of her death, and it seems that there was no problem for her to get heroin whenever she wanted to.

We did not bring our daughter up in a community of drug users and we don't understand why our daughter is dead now, especially with the government telling us that they have won the war on drugs. My daughter had been through inpatient treatment for her drug problem and court ordered out patient treatment, but she still died. As far as I am concerned the war has not even started.

Ask the parent of any child lost to drugs and they will tell you that the war is far from over and that we are tired of losing our children to it. My husband and I have one son left and I have two older stepsons. Our son is 18 years old and we are so worried that he will become involved in drugs. We talk to him all the time about the dangers of drugs and about his sister. We are so sorry that he will have to live the rest of his life without his sister.

We have not won anything and our children are still dying. When the police came to my house to tell that my daughter had died I was totally unprepared for how she had died. She told me that she had been clean for a year and I wanted so much to believe it that I did. But the dealers were still out there providing our daughter and sister with the drugs that killed her.

I could go on for pages about the way this has torn us apart inside, but what I want to say is that we have NOT won the war on drugs, not by a long shot.            

Lynn E. Bernhard
La Marque, Texas

Invest in Prevention and Treatment, Not a No-Win Drug War
"Drug Czar" insinuates what it really is: an antiquated term for out of touch people. Perhaps these illustrious folks should get in the trenches and investigate the real drug issues.

Your article sums up some of the history of the "War on Drugs," but it doesn't accurately portray what has not been accomplished. Drugs are readily available on any street in any town in America. Marijuana is the number one cash crop of many states, including California and New York.

Methadone is NOT a cure or panacea for heroin addiction, but a substitution for heroin. Have one of the Drug Czars' visit a methadone clinic.

Alcohol kills more people in the U.S. than all the other drugs combined, save cigarettes, and more than 17, 000 people lose their lives on the nation's highways due to DUI. But of course we must not rankle the powerful alcohol industry. If one of your loved ones was killed by a drunken driver you would feel much different, I assure you.

More prisons is not the answer. Most prisoners get released eventually. And they have to live somewhere. Next to you? Next to me? Next to one of our "Drug Czars?"

Prevention and education is part of the solution. Drug treatment works and has been working for many years. Cut the horrific spending on the no-win Drug War and put it into Prevention and Treatment. The return is at least seven dollars for every dollar spent. A rehabilitated person is much less likely to commit crimes as frequently as one who is not. This is why Drug Courts work.

Dan Murphy
Washington, UT 

The War on Drugs: A Policy of Failure
During the Join Together interview, Jerome H. Jaffee said that "Burnham came closer to the truth when he wrote that, 'Everyone at the conference knew that the problem is going to continue for American society, but at a much lower level than 35 years before.'"

How untrue the second clause of that sentence is can be understood by looking at the statistics from 1970 and in the last years.

According to the DEA, by 1965 there were 4 million people in the U.S. who had used an illegal drug but by 2001 there were 110 million-27 times as many.

Students reported nationally for the last ten years that it is easier to buy illegal drugs than it is to buy beer and cigarettes. Student use curves for tobacco and marijuana just crossed-tobacco on the way down and marijuana on the way up.

According to DEA, street level heroin in the U.S. averaged 3.6 percent pure in 1980 and it cost an average of $3.80 to get high. By 1999 street level heroin averaged 38.2 percent pure (25 times as potent) and cost $0.80 to get high (adjusted by DEA to 1980 dollars to account for inflation). By 2004, DEA said police were seizing street level heroin on both coasts at over 60 percent pure.

In 1970 one ounce of a hard drug was considered a good seizure. Since 1994 we have seen multiple-ton seizures of both heroin and cocaine.

Jack A. Cole
Medford, MA 

Read All About It: Drug War Over
We won the drug war?! Tell that to the people of Afghanistan. Poppy production was nearly 100% eradicated under the Taliban and now is once again the major cash crop with 100% production. Where does that heroin go? To Europe and the United States. And, I remember the day when I could buy a pack of Sudafed off the shelf. No longer. I must take a card to the clerk and a get a pack with a limit. What was won there? And what about "alcho-pops" that have been mentioned on Join Together and the big campaign you recently ran to reduce underage drinking. Another "win" in the Czar's wars on drugs?

The reality is that drugs and alcohol reap huge profits and the spinoffs like crime are industries that we work in and keep us financially comfortable. When I was practicing in a nurse practitioner primary care clinic, I use to joke with my patients and tell them, "I'm sorry you have a sore throat, but your sore throat pays my rent."

Like real wars which cost billions yet always makes others rich, drugs and alcohol produce the same effect. Therefore, no matter what you call it, the drug wars, like the Middle East fighting, will likely never cease. There are just too many interests to see to that.

Muhammad Saifudin
Dammam, Saudi Arabia