Good Bye (and Good Riddance), Drug Czar

By David Borden, DRCNet. Posted October 24, 2000.

When drug fighting agencies from around the world gathered in New York for the United Nations Drug Summit in June '98, the official slogan of the week was "Drug Free in Ten -- We Can Do It!" Italian mafia fighter Pino Arlacci, head of the UN's Drug Control Program, promised that a new level of international cooperation would begin to turn the tide in the war on drugs. Arlacci's sloganeering, however, was met with skepticism. As the summit opened, a two-page ad in the New York Times, signed by over 500 prominent citizens worldwide, declared, "We believe the global war on drugs is now causing more harm than drug abuse itself."

Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) Director Barry McCaffrey, testifying to Congress, derided the letter's signers as "sort of a fringe group." But while McCaffrey's name-calling may have worked on Capitol Hill, the charge didn't stick elsewhere. The group -- which included former Secretary of State George Schultz, two former US Attorneys General, a former Surgeon General, several Nobel laureates, a number of federal judges, former presidents of the nations of Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Nicaragua, former UN Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar, bishops from the Catholic, Episcopal and Anglican churches and Walter Cronkite, among others -- was just a little too impressive for reasonable people to regard as "fringe."

As General Czar McCaffrey prepares to retire from public life, it is a fitting time to look at his record and see whether this was an isolated incident or whether McCaffrey used such tactics often. The answer to that question should then have implications for how trustworthy the drug czar's words should be regarded in general, and by extension how trustworthy the government that he represents should be regarded on the drug issue in general. Unfortunately, it appears that this was not an isolated incident, but rather a lengthy and incredible pattern of slander and disregard for facts.

A shining example is McCaffrey's visit to Albuquerque last year, where he again resorted to name-calling, labeling New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, who had just returned from Washington as part of his crusade to spark a national debate on drug legalization, with epithets such as "goofy," "irresponsible," "uninformed," even "Puff Daddy Johnson."

I suppose the General is entitled to his opinion. But McCaffrey crossed one line too many when he accused the Governor of telling college students in Washington that marijuana, heroin and cocaine are "great." The event to which McCaffrey was referring was a meeting the Governor held with representatives of Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP), portions of which were broadcast on CBS Evening News and covered by the Associated Press. As an SSDP advisor, I attended that two-hour meeting, and I can attest to the fact that the Governor said no such thing. Indeed, Gov. Johnson made clear several times that he considers drug use to be a handicap and best avoided.

Unfortunately, McCaffrey's errors are not limited to a few isolated incidents, but span a wide range of issues over a period of years. For example, on August 16, 1996, as California's medical marijuana initiative, Prop. 215, was heading to the ballot, McCaffrey told the San Francisco Chronicle, "There is not a shred of scientific evidence that shows that smoked marijuana is useful or needed. This is not science. This is not medicine. This is a cruel hoax." On December 30, after 215 had passed, McCaffrey was asked by CNN's Carl Rochelle, "is there any evidence... that marijuana is useful in a medical situation?" McCaffrey responded, "No, none at all. There are hundreds of studies that indicate that it isn't."

Meanwhile, though, the information had gotten out in the media -- including outlets such as Nightline -- that scientific studies did exist -- dozens -- providing scientific evidence of marijuana's medical benefits in some cases. So on January 2, ONDCP chief counsel Pat Seitz, appearing on the CNN show "Burden of Proof," tried to retract her boss's mistaken statements, insisting, "He has not said there is no research. He has not said there is no research."

In a Dec. 30 press conference, attended by national and international media, McCaffrey used a display of supposed medical uses of marijuana, falsely attributed to medical marijuana authority Dr. Tod Mikuriya, to ridicule Prop. 215 proponents. The display, captioned "Dr. Tod Mikuriya's (215 Medical Advisor) Medical Uses of Marijuana," listed such applications as "recalling forgotten memories" and "writer's cramp," which McCaffrey singled out for ridicule in charging Prop. 215 proponents with "Cheech and Chong medicine."

Liked this story? Get top stories in your inbox each week from AlterNet! Sign up now »