THE FORGOTTEN WAR

[Monday, 4 August]

DOBBS: Tonight, we begin a series of special reports this week on the war
on drugs. We call it "The Forgotten War." It's a war that costs American
taxpayers $12 billion a year to stop the flow of drugs into this country.

Lisa Sylvester reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After 30 years of fighting
the drug war, U.S. law enforcement officials have been changing their
approach. Instead of simply looking at the drug war based on supply and
demand, they now look at it as a business, attacking growers, shippers,
wholesalers, and retailers.

Just last Thursday, the Justice Department announced it broke a major
Mexican drug cartel. The Zambada-Garcia organization that was funneling
cocaine from Colombia to the U.S.; 240 people were arrested and six tons of
cocaine seized.

JOHN ASHCROFT, ATTORNEY GENERAL: The success of Operation Trifecta has made
this a good day for justice and a good day for the people of Mexico and a
good day for the people of the United States.

SYLVESTER: The federal government says it intercepts 20 percent of the
illegal drugs headed for the United States. Policy groups tracking the
issue say the number is closer to 10 percent. No one really knows the exact
figure. What is known is, the United States has spent billions of dollars
fighting the drug war; $11 billion has been budgeted this year alone, with
$2 billion spent on interdiction and another billion dollars on
international efforts, training the Colombian and Mexican military,
destroying crops, and offering farmers alternative crops to grow.

STEVEN CASTEEL, DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION: Drugs took years and
generations to get embedded into our society. And it's going to take years
and generations, a long fight. SYLVESTER: According to the federal
government, 90 percent of all cocaine and 80 percent of the heroin in the
U.S. either originates or passes through Colombia. Peru and Bolivia make up
the rest of the supply, while Mexico serves as a primary transit point for
the South American drugs.

Three years ago, the U.S. launched a program called Plan Colombia. The
government in Colombia stepped up spraying coca and poppy fields, the
precursors to cocaine and heroin. There are signs it's working. Net coca
production in Colombia, which tripled in the last decade, dropped 15
percent in 2002. And the opium poppy cultivation fell 25 percent last year.

Drug czar John Walters is optimistic.

JOHN WALTERS, DRUG POLICY CHIEF: We should see, given what we know now,
historic changes in the marketability of cocaine in the next six to twelve
months.

SYLVESTER: But that's not a unanimous view. The U.S. may be successful in
Colombia, but drug dealers are simply moving their operations across the
border, to Bolivia and Peru, where drug cultivation has increased
substantially.

SANHO TREE, DRUG POLICY PROJECT DIRECTOR: All we've been doing is pushing
cultivation of these illicit crops from one country to the next, and,
indeed, from one continent to the next. It's not unlike that game
whack-a-mole. You beat the mole down on one end, it pops up on the other end.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SYLVESTER: This fight has been going on for three decades, but one big
difference is the effect of 9/11. Security at the border has never been
tighter. And with the Patriot Act, law enforcement officials have broader
authority for intelligence gathering. That's being used not only to fight
terrorism, but also to stop drug dealers -- Lou.

DOBBS: Lisa, thank you very much -- Lisa Sylvester reporting from Washington.

Joining me now to talk more about the forgotten war, Deborah McCarthy.
She's with the State Department's Bureau For International Narcotics and
Law Enforcement and joins us from our studios in Washington, D.C.

Good to have you with us.

DEBORAH MCCARTHY, BUREAU FOR INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS AND LAW ENFORCEMENT:
Good to be here.

DOBBS: The ultimate test, obviously, in the success of the war on drugs is
how many people in this country are using those drugs, how much in the way
of drugs are being moved to them. Do you have good news for us on that?
MCCARTHY: Well, it's a continuous major struggle, because we have in the
states approximately $64 billion being spent on drugs. And we are spending
approximately $12 billion, as was noted, on the fight, of which a portion
is overseas, from which most of the drugs flow.

So we're having -- we're seeing a turn in Colombia. We're watching what's
happening in Peru and Bolivia. And we are taking down major
narcotrafficking organizations, because it is a battle against
organizations, in countries such as Mexico.

DOBBS: Ms. McCarthy, Mexico, Colombia is the principal origination point
for heroin, for cocaine, and Colombia itself racked with an internal
crisis, political crisis. How likely is it is that the United States can
realistically stop coca production, heroin production in Colombia within
the next year to three years?

MCCARTHY: At the present rate in which we are going after the sources and
spraying, we should substantially get the bulk of what is there, not
forgetting that, at the tail end, there will probably always be a portion
there.

But with the commitment that we have and that President Uribe has to attack
the organizations in all fronts, including the supply, as you noted, we
should see significant progress in the next couple of years.

DOBBS: Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico, is the United States receiving the
cooperation from those countries that is desperately needed to have a
dramatic impact on the flow of drugs into this country?

MCCARTHY: We're seeing excellent cooperation, and with the focus primarily
on Colombia. We are working closely, law enforcement agencies on both
sides, in Mexico. In Peru and Colombia, we are seeing a sort of holding the
line. And we're watching that closely to focus on what could possibly be a
slight balloon effect. So we're carefully watching that and pushing for
ramping up eradication, which is the key there.

So I would say, on the whole, yes, we do have excellent cooperation,
particularly in the largest two countries from which the drugs either come
from or flow through.

DOBBS: As you know, Americans are very skeptical about the pronouncements
on the war on drugs. For two decades, drug traffic, over that period of
time, into this country has actually risen. It's abated in some cases and
stabilized in others in the last year or two. But the fact is that the
street price of drugs, which is the best indicator of the availability of
drugs, remains at the same levels that it was two years ago, three years
ago. When will we see a real change in that indicator on the success of the
war on drugs?

MCCARTHY: It's estimated that there's going to be a lag of about six to
twelve months before we see effects on the price. And I need to note also
that we need to also watch carefully a new crop of drugs which are called
the synthetic drugs, which can either come from overseas or basically be
put together just about anywhere. That's something to watch. And that is
affecting a number of our young people in the states.

DOBBS: You're talking about ecstasy? You're talking about methamphetamines
and...

MCCARTHY: Correct.

DOBBS: ... other drugs. Those drugs are largely being manufactured in this
country, though, are they not?

MCCARTHY: They're being manufactured. A large portion, we see in Mexico.
And we're also seeing a large portion that is flowing to us from the
Netherlands. And we're working closely with that country, in addition to
countries in Latin America, to curb the flow, which is quite large.

DOBBS: Deborah McCarthy, amongst those who has a very difficult job facing
her, and we thank you for your time here tonight.

MCCARTHY: Thank you.

DOBBS: Tomorrow, we continue our series of special reports on "The
Forgotten War." We look at what's being done to control drugs that are
produced in this country, including the synthetics, as Deborah McCarthy
just mentioned. Bill Tucker will have that report for us.

And that brings us to the subject of tonight's poll. The question is,
should the United States be doing more to win the war on drugs? Yes, no, or
perhaps even maybe? Cast your vote at CNN.com/Lou. We'll have the
preliminary results a little later in the show.

A different kind of drug war is being fought over patients who are
increasingly diagnosing themselves. As drug companies advertise more,
patients are demanding certain prescription drugs by name. And that has
begun to concern a number of medical practitioners.

Kitty Pilgrim reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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KITTY PILGRIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): According to your TV, you
could be taking a lot more drugs and feeling like a million bucks. It's
called direct-to-consumer advertising, telling the consumer they really
should consider a new product.

Some doctors object.

DR. JAMES GORDON, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR MIND AND BODY: What they're doing by
advertising drugs is giving patients, I think, the belief that the drug
that's so beautifully, although I believe insipidly, portrayed in the
television commercial is going to be the answer. And they're causing
patients to put more pressure on doctors. And, unfortunately, many doctors
are giving in to that pressure.

PILGRIM: Promotional spending by pharmaceutical manufacturers has soared,
from some $9 billion in 1996 to more than $19 billion in 2001, more than
double.

Do the ads work? Absolutely. According to one study, every dollar spent on
an ad generates $4.20 in sales. Many new drugs address conditions that have
been barely treated before or simply not openly discussed, like impotence,
depression, or adult attention deficit disorder.

Dr. Steven Lamm says he doesn't mind pharmaceutical companies trying to
educate consumers and meet patient needs. He objects when they try to
create a need for a drug without any medical reason. These days, he sees a
dramatic difference in the patient-doctor relationship.

DR. STEVEN LAMM: They come in armed with information about which are -- the
best hospital, the best doctors, the best alternative treatments. So this
is just part of this mass of new health care information that's available
to patients that I have to deal with every day, that my father, who's a
physician, family doctor, years ago did not have to deal with.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PILGRIM: Now, some doctors say it's a phenomenon that's here to stay. The
ads won't go away. But they recommend patients look at the drug Web sites,
instead of just viewing the ads, because self- education is OK. The problem
is self-diagnosis without any information -- Lou.

DOBBS: Well, if the drug companies can generate over $4 per dollar spent on
advertising, it's working very well. Why in the world are doctors allowing
patients to, effectively, prescribe? PILGRIM: They basically say, patients
come in and request. They still have the ultimate power, in that they write
the prescriptions. It does create a different dynamic between...

DOBBS: There go the fancy dinners at AMA conventions, right?

PILGRIM: Well, I'm not sure about that. Those are probably pretty permanent.

(LAUGHTER)

DOBBS: Kitty, thanks -- Kitty Pilgrim.

Well, tonight's thought is on the power of drugs. "No drug, not even
alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the
source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs. We should test
them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power" -- that from
humorist and author P.J. O'Rourke.

[Tuesday, 5 August]

DOBBS: This week, we are reporting on "The Forgotten War," the war against
drugs.

Secretary of State Colin Powell has recommended that the United States
resume its backing of anti-drug flights over Colombia. Reuters quotes
unnamed administration officials who say President Bush is likely to
approve the recommendation.

Those flights were halted two years ago after an aircraft carrying a U.S.
missionary was shot down in Peru. It had been mistaken for a drug running
plane.

Last night here, we reported on efforts to control the international supply
of drugs before they enter this country. Tonight, we report on what's being
done to stop drugs produced in this country as we continue our series of
special reports, "The Forgotten War."

Bill -- Bill Tucker has the report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL TUCKER, CNNfn CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The United States is losing
the war on drugs. Even if the country succeeded in cutting off the flow of
all illegal drugs from outside the country tomorrow, there would still be a
growing drug problem in America.

Marijuana use is rising. According to the latest statistics, more than 9
percent used marijuana at least once in 2001. That is up 8 percent from a
year earlier. Domestically grown marijuana sells for anywhere from $1,000
to $4,000 per pound, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency.

SCOTT BURNS, DFO OF NATL. DRUG CONTROL POLICY: This is not the marijuana of
20 years ago. This is not 1 percent ditch weed. This is 8 to 15 percent
THC-level marijuana with as high as 30 percent.

TUCKER: Mobile methamphetamine labs are producing a readily supply of
cheaply and easily made meth to meet a growing demand. Abuse of narcotic
prescription pain relievers also on the rise, with nearly 4 percent of the
population admitting they have misused prescription narcotic drugs.

The National Drug Intelligence Center estimates that 28.5 million Americans
used an illicit drug in 2001. The war is being waged and lost. But few will
admit it.

TIMOTHY LYNCH, CATO INSTITUTE: There is this political dynamic in
Washington, D.C. where no politician wants to get the blame for having
supported a policy that is not working. Unlike in the private sector where
if something is not working, a business firm will quickly go out of
business, in Washington, D.C., if something is not working, the idea is to
throw more money at the problem. And that's what we've seen in Washington
for the past 10 to 15 years.

TUCKER: The cost is staggering. The federal government spends $1 billion a
month to fight the war on drugs, but users spend more, six times more,
almost $6 billion a month to buy drugs.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration puts the cost
to the economy and to lives at roughly $284 billion. But that's just the
financial side of the ledger.

DR. H. WESLEY CLARK, CTR. FOR SUBSTANCE ABUSE TREATMENT: When you see
people give up careers because of drugs, when you see mothers abandon their
children because of drugs, when you see doctors and lawyers and engineers
walk away from their careers because of drugs, then that gives you the --
shall we say, more up-close and personal story.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TUCKER: Which is why some argue that the focus of the war on drugs should
be targeted more on care and treatment if we are to make meaningful
progress in solving the national drug problem, Lou.

DOBBS: Now there seemed to be a lot of ideas and a lot of experts.
Meanwhile, we're losing the war and losing it badly. Bill Tucker, thank you
very much.

TUCKER: Thank you.

DOBBS: Tomorrow we continue the series of special reports on "The Forgotten
War." We report on the efforts to reduce the demand for drugs in this
country. We'll be joined by former national drug control director, William
Bennett.

[Wednesday, 6 August]

DOBBS; "The Forgotten War", at issue, how to reduce demand for drugs in
this country, especially among young people. Jan Hopkins looks at drug
prevention programs and whether they're working.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAN HOPKINS, CNNfn CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's 3:00 in the afternoon,
and the community outreach center in Brewster, New York, is swarming with kids.

GILBERT BOTVIN, CORNELL INST. FOR PREVENTION RESEARCH: We know that the
high-risk period for kids, for example, is between 3:00 in the afternoon
and 6:00 in the afternoon. So kids need to be monitored and supervised.

HOPKINS: These teens are considered at risk. The center gets them off the
streets and helps them make choices that don't include drugs.

TABITHA SAEZ, AGE 18: This is just an environment where, you know, drugs
aren't allowed. And it's just a good place to be.

KURT NISSEN, AGE 18: I didn't have to, you know, worry about doing
everything that I used to. It just helped me, you know, just relax. Stop
trying to be everybody else.

HOPKINS: The staff has seen kids change.

LAUREN AZEEZ BENNETT, PROGRAM MANAGER, COMMUNITY OUTREACH CTR.: They're
less likely to use drugs. They're making healthier decisions. They're
avoiding risky behavior. They're staying in school longer longer.

HOPKINS: According to federal statistics, illegal drug use among teenagers
is leveling off after rising in the '90s.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What should you do when someone offers you drugs?

CHILDREN: No!

HOPKIN: Drug prevention campaigns have changed through the years. In the
1980s Nancy Reagan started her "Just Say No" campaign. Also in the '80s the
LAPD developed the DARE program, in which police brought the anti-drug
message to schools.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you think a drug is?

HOPKINS: A recent GAO report questions the effectiveness of the DARE
program. The current push is away from scaring kids about drugs...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is drugs. This is your brain on drugs. Any questions?

HOPKINS: ...and towards building up confidence.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who believe in themselves in here?

HOPKINS: In Philadelphia young kids get a year-round lesson in thinking
positively about themselves and staying away from drugs. Parents are also
being recruited for the war on drugs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Marijuana use can be prevented by taking your kids to
this clinic.

JOSEPH CALIFANO, NATL. CTR. ON ADDICTION AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE: Parent power
is the most underutilized tool in combatting substance abuse, and it's the
most effective tool. How parents act, what their attitudes are about drugs,
how engaged they are in their child's life, will have more to do with
whether that child uses drugs than anything else that affects that child.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOPKINS: But parents can't always be there for their kids. So experts say
that school and community programs are important. Yet these programs are
fighting for funding in an environment when communities, schools, and
government are all cutting back -- Lou.

DOBBS: Jan, thank you very much.

Drug use dropped, as Jan reported, during Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No"
campaign in the 1980s. William Bennett helped spread that campaign through
the nation's schools. Later he became the country's first director of drug
control. William Bennett joins us now from Aspen, Colorado. Good to have
you with us.

WILLIAM BENNETT, FRM. DRUG CZAR: Thanks, Lou.

DOBBS: The "Just Say No" program, nearly every television comic had a field
day with the expression, the, if you will, intelligentsia made great fun of it.

BENNETT: Right. But the thing worked.

Sure, it did. Yes, a lot of the intelligentsia and the comics, some
academics made fun of it. They said what they often say about messages of
this sort. It was too simple, but the kids liked it. They responded to it.
They understood it. And they used it. And that's why you heard that chorus
of children responding the way they did.

DOBBS: And today, Bill, we are faced with an onslaught of new synthetic
drugs. We are faced with the same old drugs, heroin, cocaine, marijuana. Is
there, even over a period of some time, we've already put in three decades,
is there hope for absolute definitive success in this war against drugs?

BENNETT: Well, if you mean by absolute definitive success zero, no, you're
never going to get to zero. But can we get to acceptable levels? Yes. From
1985 to 1991 drug use went down by about 60 percent in this country, Lou.
That's very substantial.

What's discouraging is when you see polls, and you had a poll here the
other night on your show, where people say let's not continue the effort,
let's not spend more money. The history of this...

DOBBS: Did that surprise you?

BENNETT: It did surprise me, though I know trends are going in this
direction, as the legalization trend is building. But the history of this
is very simple. When societies tend to get hard on drugs and give a clear
and unambiguous message, drug use goes down. When they have some success at
this, they tend to pull back, which is where I think we are now. We
shouldn't pull back. Attention must be paid. The front line is the parent,
as Joe Califano said. And the school. And then other messages in the culture.

There are some great successes out there in local communities and education
programs, and attention must be paid to them.

DOBBS: The schools, you when you were secretary of education embraced the
"Just Say No" program. Schools face a host of issues today beyond drugs
that we didn't anticipate almost two decades ago. Does the federal
government have to do more here in education on drugs in the schools?

BENNETT: Yes, it does, but -- it does, but as John Walters, the drug czar,
will tell you, a lot of it doesn't have to cost a lot of money. Policy is
probably the most important thing, policy and attention. If parents,
teachers, school administrators will pay attention, send a clear,
unambiguous message, this can have as much effect as anything else. Kids
are worried about drugs, and if we respond in a way that suggests we're
with them, we're not surrendering, it could be very positive.

DOBBS: Not too brush too large an issue here, but just quickly, because
this is a drug culture. We have 60 million people taking various drugs to
reduce depression, to reduce anxiety, prescription legal drugs. We have 30
million people at least drinking alcohol in this country. Are we going to
have to change as a culture in order to win the war on drugs?

BENNETT: Well, cultures have to figure this out in different ways. And we
make different distinctions.

Some of these lines aren't as bright and bold as we would like.
Nevertheless -- nevertheless, what we say is that there are some things
that are acceptable, acceptable for adults and not for children.

The interesting thing -- and we can't ever forget is that most kids are on
our side, and they expect us to be on their side. They don't expect us to
retreat. They don't expect us to surrender. There are some adults where,
you know, you see the numbers -- where some kids have had their first
marijuana at home, where they've shared marijuana with their parents. When
you've got that kind of thing, you know, you've got a disaster.

But if parents would recognize that kids are looking for clear signals, it
can help a great deal.

DOBBS: Bill Bennett, thank you for being here to help us as we try to focus
on this important issue. Bill Bennett.

BENNETT: Thank you, sir.

[Thursday, 7 August]

DOBBS: This week our series of "Special Reports" on America's war on drugs,
what we are referring to as the forgotten war, tonight we focus on
rehabilitation, the final line of defense when interdiction and prevention
have failed. Only one of every six drug abusers who needs treatment is
receiving it. Peter Viles reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For those of you who just came in, we are talking about
the list that we developed two weeks ago on five things that I want to
change about myself. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning, family. My name is
Orlando.

CROWD: Hey, Orlando.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the things that I'd like to change is my level of
responsibility because I feel that as an addict I became irresponsible.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I really need to work on that pride issue, you know. I
need to humble myself. I need to realize that, you know what, it's okay
today that I'm an addict because I'm an addict in recovery and I do have
another shot at life.

PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Phoenix House, a residential drug treatment
center in Brooklyn, where drug addicts come to rebuild broken lives. Dorian
Baldwin is a cocaine addict. He's been in the program three months.

DORIAN BALDWIN, COCAINE ADDICT: It works if you want it to. If you come in
with an open mind once you sign your name on that piece of paper that
states that your life is unmanageable, unbearable, and someone needs to
help you with that, then it works.

VILES: For most drug addicts, though, treatment does not work because most
addicts don't give it a chance. Dr. Herbert Cleaver estimates he has
treated 5,000 addicts.

DR. HERBERT CLEAVER, ADDICT COUNSELOR: What they all want is controlled
use. I mean, what the crack addict wants is to be able to take an
occasional hit off the crack pipe. What the alcoholic wants is to be able
to knock back a couple with the guys on Friday or Saturday night.

VILES: Government statistics bear him out. The government estimates there
are 6.1 million Americans who abuse drugs to the point that they need
treatment. 1.1 million do get some form of treatment. And what about the
rest? The vast majority, 4.7 million, don't get it because they don't think
they need it. The so-called denial gap.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anybody else want to chime in on...

VILES: Treatment isn't always successful. The relapse rate is above 50
percent, but when it works, it literally saves lives. Mitch Rosenthal
founded Phoenix House in the late '60s.

MITCH ROSENTHAL, FOUNDER PHOENIX HOUSE: As we're sitting here, there are
6,000 men and women and boys and girls in Phoenix Houses in nine states in
America. Most of them, a year from now, will have their lives back together
and be changed human beings.

VILES: Bill Scott hopes to be one of them. A recovering heroin addict, he's
been at Phoenix House for eight months.

BILL SCOTT, RECOVERING HEROIN ADDICT: People should know that it's not
hopeless. Take it from somebody that slept on the trains. There's always a
light at the end of the tunnel. Sometimes you might not see it, because
that tunnel is really long, but if you keep moving forward eventually
you'll get there.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VILES: Treatment is not cheap, and the federal government at $3 billion a
year is the biggest payer for it but numerous studies have shown that
treatment is a smart investment of federal money. It is a lot cheaper than
prison, and in the long run it does save the government money -- Lou.

DOBBS: And it definitely saves lives 20,000 lives a year lost directly to
drug. Peter Viles, tough story. Thank you very much. We appreciate it.

[Friday, 8 August. Note: Sitting in for Lou Dobbs, Jan Hopkins.]

HOPKINS: Tonight, in our series of special reports "The Forgotten War," we
focus on decriminalizing drugs. Advocates for drug decriminalization in the
United States don't have far to go to see the consequences of softer drug
laws. Canada is trying several different and seemingly conflicting
approaches, with mixed results.

Casey Wian reports from Vancouver, British Columbia.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A common sight in Vancouver:
police arresting a suspected drug dealer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We found four Tic Tac containers full of heroin, powder
cocaine, and rock cocaine.

WIAN: With drug use in Canada at a 20-year high, authorities are struggling
to find the right mix of law enforcement and treatment. That's evident in
Vancouver's tiny downtown east side neighborhood, a longtime junkie's haven.

DOUG LEPARD, VANCOUVER POLICE DEPARTMENT: The epicenter was right here
where we're standing. And we would see anything up to 150, 200 people
actively involved in the open buying and selling of drugs. And it generated
an incredible amount of disorder. And, basically, the drug traffickers and
their customers had taken over these streets.

WIAN: Since April, police have tripled the number of officers on these
streets. Scores of drug dealers have been arrested. Others have moved.
Crime and overdose deaths are down. But this resident, a self-described
heroin addict and crack head, says he's seen it before.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They come in gung-ho. They did. They come in really hard
and really strong, right? And they did it hard and strong. But they're
wearing down. And what's going to happen? When the money runs out, this
place is going to go back to normal.

WIAN (on camera): Despite police efforts to crack down on drug trafficking
and blatant drug use in Vancouver's downtown east side, a thriving open-air
drug market still exists here. Behind me, you can see drug use and drug
deals happening just a block away from the police station.

(voice-over): Police only arrest dealers. Users' drugs are sometimes
confiscated, but they're not arrested, because possession charges rarely
stick in Canadian courts. In fact, police here are supporting a new way of
dealing with addicts called supervised injection clinics, where junkies can
shoot up under a nurse's supervision and without police interference.

WIL STEWART, REGISTERED NURSE: They would bring their drugs in. We provide
a spoon for them to mix the drugs with sterile water.

WIAN: Everything but the drugs is supplied in an effort to prevent the
spread of disease.

STEWART: Once they've injected their drug, we have them stay with us in
here for at least 15 minutes to ensure that they do not overdose.

DR. MARK TYNDALL, ST. PAUL'S HOSPITAL: If you went downtown and you saw
teenagers leaning beside a dumpster, injecting drugs with puddle water, I
think it's just a pragmatic thing to say, look, this is not a very good
situation and we really need to get people out of that very dangerous
situation into an environment where we can connect with them.

WIAN: A new government-funded supervised injection facility is scheduled to
open in this building later this year. Canada is also considering
decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana. The Bush
administration calls the proposal a threat to the United States, which
remains deeply divided on the issue of softer drug laws. Libertarians say
decriminalization would save taxpayers money and make room in jails for
violent criminals.

GEORGE GETZ, LIBERTARIAN PARTY: Imagine how much safer your neighborhood
would be if we could instantly lock up a million murderers, robbers, and
rapists without spending one more tax dollar. That's exactly what we could
do if we repealed prohibition, because we could let the nonviolent drug
users out of prison.

WIAN: But drug enforcement officials say, ending the war on drugs would
bring dire consequences.

MICHAEL VIGIL, SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE, DEA: I think that we would have a
major impact in terms of an increase in the addict population. We would
still see increase, a significant increase, in crime. And, at the same
time, health care costs would skyrocket.

WIAN: That's what happened when Switzerland allowed drug users to shoot up
openly in a public park in the late 1980s. Now the Swiss government
provides pure heroin to some addicts in supervised injection sites.

While Canada isn't going that far, its delicate mix of compassion and
crackdown is being watched closely by advocates on both sides of the war on
drugs.

Casey Wian, CNN, Vancouver, British Columbia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOPKINS: That brings us to our poll question tonight: Do you believe
marijuana should be decriminalized, yes or no? You can vote on our Web
site, CNN.com/Lou. We'll share preliminary results later in the show.

[snip]

Earlier, Lou spoke with America's drug czar, John Walters, who's been
director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy for nearly two years.

Lou began by asking him if we're winning or losing the war on drugs.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN WALTERS, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL POLICY: I think
we've got use going down again, after a plateau for young people's use in
the mid-'90s. We had a report that it was maybe as much as 13 percent
declined in the last year was a result of renewed, invigorated efforts.

I think, overall, we have to remember that, since we got serious at the
beginning of the '80s, overall drug use is half of what it was. And that's
progress. If we did that in homelessness or with dropouts or with child
abuse, it would be a victory. Now, we're all frustrated because it's not
smaller. But this is a result of real effort. When we push back, it gets
smaller. And when we don't push back, it can get bigger. So we have to stay
at it.

LOU DOBBS, CNN ANCHOR: As you say, part of the frustration born of the fact
that drug use has risen in a number of areas. And 20,000 people die in
drug-related deaths every year. A third of the incarcerations in federal
prisons, really more than a third, actually, relate to drug or substance
abuse. What has to be done to win this war?

WALTERS: Well, we've had experience now. We know we have to be balanced. We
have to do a better job of prevention, be serious, give kids messages,
supervise them. We're doing that in a better way.

We have to treat people. The president has made a historic commitment to
add 1.6 billion to federal treatment spending. We're spending almost over
$3.5 billion on federal treatment spending. We know we can get people into
recovery. We have to do that. But we also have to treat this as a real
market phenomenon. We have to reduce supply. And I think the other
encouraging sign is we are doing that in the largest single drug of
expenditure by Americans, cocaine. With Colombia, we now have a 15 percent
reduction last year. It's accelerated under President Uribe, who's actually
on his first anniversary in office.

We have a partner in Colombia, and with President Fox in Mexico that are
make historic changes. It's a market phenomenon. We have to reduce both
supply and demand. Otherwise, simply making improvements on one half of
that; the other half will tend to undermine it with high demand or large
supply of dangerous, addictive substances.

DOBBS: The culture itself, there is a component of our culture, a
subculture, in which marijuana is an accepted recreational drug, as you
well know. It is also -- has the impetus of being medicinally redeemable,
if you will, because in many cases it is effective. Is your office, is the
United States government going to focus on that particular subculture and
those conceptions and preconceptions about drug use, and attack that directly?

WALTERS: Biggest single area of ignorance is marijuana. No question about
it. Today of the six million-plus people we have to treat, 60 percent are
dependent on marijuana, treated for dependency on illegal drugs. More
teenagers coming into treatment nationwide for marijuana dependency than
for all other illegal drugs combined.

Baby boomers and the generation after them all have a great deal of
ignorance about that problem. They think marijuana's not an addictive
substance, it's not a serious threat. It's more than twice as important as
a cause of dependency than the next most important illegal drug, which is
cocaine. But most people think of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, those
are dangerous substances. Marijuana's the soft drug. In fact, we ought to
legalize it, as you say.

The fact of the matter is, marijuana is the most dangerous threat across a
broader scale, and part of that is because of the ignorance about marijuana
and the fact that people don't realize that today's marijuana is not 1
percent THC, the psychoactive ingredient of the '80s, it's 9 to 14 percent,
and we now have high-potency varieties of 20 to 30 percent, increasing its
danger coming from Canada and other places.

DOBBS: Mr. Walters, as you know, there are in this country a group of
people, I would style them as presenting themselves as pseudosophisticates,
who are wry in their dismissal and derision of the "just say no" to drugs
slogan that came out of the middle '80s, Nancy Reagan. We don't have
anything like that, but the fact is that campaign really worked, didn't it?

WALTERS: It did work. And we like to base our policies on facts and on
results. And during the '80s, we started at the beginning of the '80s with
the largest drug problem in the history of the United States, twice as high
in the number of users as we have today, and it declined steadily, reaching
a low point in '92 and rebounding a bit during the mid-'90s and plateauing.
That campaign, which simply said directly at the culture that said it's OK
to use it's not OK to use, and it's your responsibility first and foremost
to not use.

DOBBS: Is this White House, Mr. Walters, sufficiently out in front on this
forgotten war? Are you sufficiently in the public eye on this important,
critically important issue?

DOBBS: We have a national media campaign where we spend over $150 million
with messages that we've used the experience of the past 20 to 25 years to
craft, and I think if you look at the preliminary results we've gotten from
the changes we've made to improve that, a 13 percent decline in teen drug
use in the last year is unprecedented.

Yeah, in the context of the war on terror and other things, it's hard to
get the same kind of prominence there was at certain points in the '80s,
but the president has made clear in putting his political credibility on
the line, saying we want a reduction in two years of 10 percent, and five
years of 25 percent drug use. That's putting his credibility and
accountability on the line. He's led the effort on treatment. He's led the
effort in working with Mexico and Colombia on this, and we're seeing
results on both supply and demand that are historic.

DOBBS: John Walters, thank you very much for being with us.

WALTERS: My pleasure. Thank you, Lou.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOPKINS: Now a reminder to vote in our poll question tonight. Do you
believe that marijuana should be decriminalized? Yes or no? You can vote on
our Web site, cnn.com/lou, and we'll share the results later in the show.

[snip]

HOPKINS: The preliminary results of our poll question tonight. We asked:
"Do you believe that marijuana should be decriminalized?" Ninety-three
percent of you said yes. Surprising results.

[snip]

And now a look at your thoughts.

Regarding our story on the growing use of antidepressants among children,
Audrey of Louisiana wrote, " I had been on three different antidepressants
before I was 16. None helped. Yet my doctor kept pushing them. If anything,
they made me more depressed because I felt like I was taking this little
pill to give me fake happiness, which is I wanted to live."

In response to our series "The Forgotten War," the war on drugs, David in
Arizona wrote, "December 16, 1988 was the first day I was free from
cocaine, crank and alcohol. Now I have a family, my own business and hope.
I could not have done this without treatment."

And Thomas in California wrote, "I am a 17-year-old recovering addict and
quitting drugs, getting my life back in order was the hardest thing I've
ever had to do. The more the issues of addiction and treatment are
addressed, the more people can beat this disease."

You can e-mail us anytime at loudobbstonight@cnn.com