Mathea Falco's favorite image for the failure of American drug-fighting policy is the thin gray line of 10 radar balloons, each costing $20 million, that stretch across the U.S. border with Mexico. Their purpose is to spot cross- border drug flights. But there is no evidence that the balloons have led to any increase in drug seizures. Like the claims that the nation's drug problem can be solved by law enforcement, they may need to be deflated.
Falco, a drug-abuse specialist who was Jimmy Carter's Assistant Secretary of State for international narcotics matters, has written a new book, The Making of a Drug-Free America: Programs That Work (Times Books; $22). A consumer guide to the most promising and cost-effective efforts in antidrug education, treatment and grass-roots action against dealers, Falco's book argues for giving drug education and treatment priority over law enforcement because, she insists, those approaches work better than most people realize. "We know that drug abuse is driven largely by demand, not supply," Falco writes. "And we have learned to reduce demand."
But first, she says, the nation has to move away from the Reagan-Bush policies that transformed the war against drugs into a vain attempt at sealing the borders while rounding up dealers and users at home. Ronald Reagan dramatically shifted federal drug-fighting dollars from education and treatment to law enforcement. George Bush sustained those priorities, nearly doubling the antidrug outlay to $12 billion but devoting nearly 70% of it to the cops-and-Coast Guard approach. That strategy has contributed to the costly doubling of the prison population during the past decade. But while casual drug use may have declined, the number of heavy drug abusers, a crime-prone population now estimated at 5.5 million, is still rising.
Falco argues persuasively that tilting the balance back to education and treatment would substantially cut the number of cocaine and heroin addicts. Even if that required higher initial spending, it would be a bargain when lower crime and health-care costs are counted in -- to say nothing of reduced human misery. But treatment is only part of her notion of a drug war that starts in the classrooms. Too bad that in her view it generally begins on the wrong foot. While Washington offers American schools $500 million each year to adopt drug-use-prevention programs, school officials are on their own when it comes to deciding which curriculum is most likely to work.
"There's virtually no guidance," says Falco. "And the research on drug programs is often inaccessible and incomprehensible." Bewildered school administrators find themselves drawn to the programs that have the most eye- catching props, including classroom games and hand puppets. But most of them don't deliver. Of 350 programs examined by one 1988 study, just three produced decreases in student use of drugs, alcohol or tobacco.
Falco has found, surprisingly, that the most successful classroom programs use techniques like role-playing to equip self-conscious teens with basic ! social skills, such as as how to conduct a conversation or respond to rudeness, as well as how to resist peer pressure to get high. The working assumption is that kids who can handle their anxiety in social situations are less likely to turn to drugs for comfort.