The Making of a Drug-Free America: Programs That Work.

• Author: Isikoff, Michael

The Making of a Drug-Free America: Programs That Work. Mathea Falco. Times, $22. Those Americans horrified by recent Serbian attempts at "ethnic cleansing" in the Balkans would do well to contemplate the consequences of our own efforts to cleanse the nation of illicit pharmaceuticals. The federal government's war on drugs has more than doubled the nation's prison population to 1.1 million, giving the United States the world's highest rate of incarceration. It has also produced a social and demographic catastrophe in the inner city. A soon-to-be-released study by the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives found that in Duval County, Florida, which includes the city of Jacksonville, 78 percent of black men between the ages of 18 and 35 have spent time in prison or jail.

Perhaps draconian policies that result in the incarceration of a substantial portion of the African-American population might be justified if they could be shown to have actually accomplished something. In fact, as Falco reminds us, drug smuggling and drugrelated homicides are more prevalent than ever while hard-core abuse of cocaine and heroin remains undiminished from levels in 1989, when President Bush stated in his one specific inaugural pledge, "Take my word for it: This scourge will stop."

Falco proposes an alternative strategy that de-emphasizes law enforcement and interdiction and relies instead on education, treatment, and community-oriented programs that tap the resourcefulness and creativity of ordinary citizens living in drug-infested neighborhoods.

This is in large measure the "responsible" approach to the drug problem favored by newspaper editorial writers, most Democrats (including Bill Clinton), think tanks, and foundations-one of which, Carnegie, sponsored Falco's book. Within certain limits, this strategy is not without merit: As Falco demonstrates, forming community coalitions, organizing nightly citizen's patrols, and trying novel municipal approaches--such as using local housing codes to shut down crack houses--are more likely to make a dent in neighborhood drug markets and street dealing than indiscriminate police sweeps and stagedfor-the-media drug busts.

But Falco fails to subject some of her proposals to the same rigor with which she scrutinizes current policies. Certainly it would be socially desirable to offer treatment to any addict who wants it. Yet even the most "successful" rehabilitation programs have staggeringly high failure...