News & Politics   comments_image Comments  Bush's Drug War
Strategy: Escalate It  The emerging picture of the
corporatization of the drug war may require the passion, smarts
and commitment of a new anti-war movement.  It can't get worse.
That's what many scientists, health advocates and drug war
reformers thought while doing battle with hyperactive drug
crusader General Barry McCaffrey, the head of the Office of
National Drug Control Policy in the Clinton administration.
McCaffrey took a fierce stance that helped produce skyrocketing
arrests for drug possession, steady militarization of the drug
battle and short shrift for treatment. The bellicose nature of
the Clinton drug effort was sometimes difficult to understand,
since the drug warrior image was a tad out of step with the
overall tone of the Clinton-Gore administration.  No matter what
Clinton's motivations, collateral damage from his policies was
extensive: the seven-month-old shot from the skies over Peru;
the teenagers caught smoking reefer and denie