“Zero Tolerance” and “Just Say No!” are quickly becoming de rigueur for anyone aspiring to make a splash in political circles. With the overwhelming majority of Americans looking for strong leadership to overcome widespread drug addiction, politicians need to offer tough rhetoric in order to sound convincing.
Even Howard Metzenbaum, one of the Senate’s most consistent ideologues in opposing the death penalty, capitulated and agreed to the death penalty for drug “kingpins” (the current bad guy of campaign oratory), much to the chagrin of his liberal supporters.
Congressman Robert Walker (R-PA) recently came up with a sensible proposal. He wants to attach restrictions to federal spending bills in order to require that the employers where public funds are spent make every effort to ensure that their workplaces have drug-free environments.
Walker tried out his amendment on a $1.4 billion bill providing appropriations to Congress. The debate this caused on the House floor was raucous. Amid boos and shouts, Walker intoned, “If the opponents think it’s good to have drugs on Capitol Hill, then that’s okay with me.”
His measure did pass, but 98 Representatives voted against it. Congressman David Obey (D-WI) called the amendment a “piece of garbage.” He said that Walker’s provision is just a “let’s pretend game” and that after the election “you’ll see people walk cynically away from the drug issue just as quickly as they made love to it before the election.”
In a 1986 Time article, the Medical Director of Rockwell’s Space Shuttle Division revealed that “20 to 25 percent of Rockwell workers at a California plant were high on the job from drugs.” In New York City, eight out of every ten men arrested for serious crimes test positive for cocaine use.
Past and current attempts to cut the supply of drugs – by destroying crops and intercepting shipments – are not enough to curb drug abuse. The State Department reported in 1987 that “narcotics production was up all over the world.”
When millions of American addicts are willing to pay big (and often stolen) bucks for illegal drugs, the drug bosses will find a way to get the goods to them. They have amassed one of the largest criminal empires in the history of the world.
The drug bosses kill indiscriminately anyone who gets in their way and often use the latest in high-tech communications and weapons equipment. They corrupt (or murder) the highest public officials in Latin American governments.
To be sure, these loathsome killers must be found and punished to the fullest possible extent. But the flow of billions of dollars of illegal money, the corruption of public officials, and ultimately the drug war itself will not end until we give an unambiguous response to drug use.
The destruction of our youth is too important to bog down in partisan rivalries. It’s going to take every ounce of our national will, and then some, to win the drug war, and we should start by not tolerating drug use by our fellow citizens.
Universities should be told that their flow of federal funding will stop if they allow their campuses to be “safe zones,” where students (with the knowledge of administration) freely use illegal drugs with fear of nothing worse than a slap on the wrist. This means no more cat-and-mouse games; universities must wipe out drugs from their campuses.
Convicted drug users (not merely drug peddlers) ought to have their driving privileges revoked. They simply should not be allowed to endanger the lives of other citizens.
Just imagine what could happen if our nation’s leaders were really serious about “Zero Tolerance.”
The Screen Actors Guild calls for voluntary drug testing of its members in a public display of its anti-drug message. Newsmen and editorial writers not only write about the horrible consequences of drug abuse, but make a commitment for zero tolerance of illegal drugs among their friends and associates.
Our elected officials, without hesitation or embarrassment, use their important positions to say NO to illegal drugs for themselves, their families, and their staffs. Management and workers, in company after company, make joint pledges that they will insist on a drug-free workplace and not tolerate executives or employees who use illegal drugs.
Since President Reagan set the example by submitting to a drug test himself, we should applaud other officials and employers who do likewise. With that kind of leadership, we would be telling the drug bosses once and for all that Americans are not going to stand by while they destroy our society.
