DAMPENING DEMAND FOR DRUGS

Is the news getting crazier all the time or has old age finally ossified
what little is left of my brain? In last Friday's Globe, I read that an
anti-drug unit of the Colombian National Police had found a half-completed
submarine during a routine raid on a warehouse 18 miles west of Bogota.

According to police officials, the 100-foot, double-hulled sub, once
completed, could travel at a depth of 100 meters while carrying more than
200 tons of cocaine. The most likely destination for such a payload? The
United States, of course, easily the world's No. 1 consumer for every kind
of mind-or mood-altering drug known to man.

Last week's startling discovery came directly on the heels of President
Clinton's visit to Colombia, where deep divisions over the nation's illegal
drug industry have resulted in a 40-year civil war.

Colombia currently exports more than 500 tons of cocaine a year. That
represents about 80 percent of the world's annual supply. During the
president's recent visit, Clinton pledged another $1.3 billion to help the
Colombian government put a lid on the nation's highly lucrative drug business.

Unfortunately, some of that aid will likely find its way into the hands of
leftist guerrillas and right-wing paramilitary groups, both of whom are
suspected of having long profited from the cocaine trade.

Whether earlier aid from Washington helped in the construction of the
$200-million sub found last week in the outskirts of Bogota, remains a
matter of speculation. What is known, however, is that the discovery
represents an escalation in the methodology used to deliver cocaine and
other illegal drugs to the American marketplace.

According to the Globe report, the more traditional methods of smuggling
illegal drugs into the United States include "swallowing drug-packed latex
capsules or hiding narcotics in false-bottom suitcases, the lining of
clothes, hollowed-out books, or the soles or heels of shoes."

Drug traffickers have also been known to conceal cocaine and heroin "in the
intestinal tracts of animals, in musical instruments, food, cement posts,
pre-colonial sculptures, the handles of shoe-polish brushes, children's
toys, prosthetics, and in silicone bags sewn into cadavers and even
surgically inserted into a woman's thighs."

All of which only goes to demonstrate that when it comes to making a buck,
you just can't underestimate human inventiveness.

It would be interesting to know how much Washington, state and local
government spend each year on drug-related programs. Whatever the price
tag, it seems the more the nation spends on the anti-drug effort, both at
home and abroad, the worse the problem becomes.

Again, it is the old story of supply and demand. Apparently, there is an
enormous craving in this country for drugs like ecstasy, cocaine, LSD and
heroin. Cocaine, it must be remembered, was all but legitimized back in the
1970s, when trendy New York disco clubs began openly serving the drug to
the popular culture's celebrity-elite clientele.

Soon even suburban housewives and college coeds were flocking to urban
street corners to obtain their little packets of the magical white powder.
But not to worry. One should never mistake the actions of well-heeled
suburbanites with the lifestyle choices of those born to live and die on
the mean streets of the American ghetto.

To the former, the willingness to "do drugs" was always considered a
"recreational" matter, whereas to the latter, drug use was usually regarded
as a sure path to addiction, crime and premature death.

It has always amazed me how so many privileged Americans can so easily take
part in an activity that has resulted in so much pain and suffering for so
many people for so long and in so many parts of the world. It would be
impossible to place a figure on the number of assaults, murders, suicides
and other acts of violence that could be directly attributed to the
international drug trade.

Think of the crime, the untold number of human tragedies, the trillions of
dollars wasted on self-destructive human behavior.

Recently it was revealed that Massachusetts' youth lead the nation in the
consumption of illegal drugs. Despite the record amounts currently being
spent on anti-drug programs, more people are using illegal drugs in America
than ever before and at an ever-earlier age.

But I do not entirely blame the foreign drug cartels or even the dealers
here at home. It is the individual citizen who is ultimately responsible
for perpetuating this national disgrace, along with both state and federal
officials, few of whom have shown any real leadership in dealing with the
problem.

More and bigger prisons are not the answer. So long as growing numbers of
ordinary citizens choose to incorporate drugs like cocaine and heroin into
their lives, there will be those willing to meet the resulting demand.

Instead, society must work toward the elimination of its current craving
for such mind- and mood-altering agents. Only then will the supply-side
source begin to dry up. That is the best and only real weapon in fighting
the war against drugs: a lack of demand, something that rests in the hands
of each and every citizen.