Drugs​—The Problems Escalate

DRUGS are very much in the news these days. It is difficult to pick up a newspaper or a news magazine and not see some reference to drug problems: A diplomat is caught carrying drugs into a country. A national leader is denounced for his role in drug-smuggling activities. A prominent athlete has to undergo drug rehabilitation. Federal agents raid a plane or a boat and uncover a large haul of narcotics. A famous entertainer dies from a drug overdose. An engineer involved in a train wreck is found to be under the influence of drugs. A politician makes drug control a main issue of his campaign. And on and on it goes.

So pronounced has the drug issue become that last year 24 nations joined together in a crackdown on drugs. They “destroyed 5,046 metric tons of coca leaf and 17,585 tons of marijuana plants,” says U.S.News & World Report. “Still, the [U.S.] State Department concludes that current eradication programs are ‘insufficient to reduce the worldwide supply of narcotics.’”

Confiscation of drugs, arrests, and convictions have increased, but so have supplies of the illicit drugs. Only a small portion of the drug output is found and seized, and in many places drugs are easier to get than ever before. For instance, despite concerted efforts in 1986 to raid and destroy cocaine-processing laboratories, the production of cocaine from coca leaves in Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru actually grew by 10 percent between 1986 and 1987. The cocaine now sold on the streets is much purer, and prices have plummeted​—giving evidence of increased supplies.

“The United States has the highest level of illicit drug use by young people in any industrialized nation in the world, and drug use initiation is occurring at earlier ages than ever before,” says a report from Behavior Today. A survey disclosed that over half of all high school seniors admitted to having tried an illicit drug during their lifetime and that this high proportion grows to about 80 percent up through those in their mid-20’s. The United States now has an estimated 1.2 million drug addicts, and 23 million more are “recreational” drug users.

Other countries are not exempt from the drug epidemic. The Soviet newspaper Pravda quoted Internal Affairs Minister Alexander Vlasov as saying: “The struggle against drug addiction and crime connected with it has become one of the main tasks of the Internal Affairs Ministry.” As reported in the Soviet Weekly, “drug-related charges have been made against 80,000 Soviet people over the last two years,” and despite treatment for addicts, “the problem remained a major one, with 131,000 registered drug users.”

Hungary is said to have between 30,000 and 50,000 drug abusers, and Poland an estimated 200,000 to 600,000 addicts and users of hard drugs, mostly youths under 25 years of age. Pakistan estimates that it has close to 313,000 opium addicts and 150,000 heroin addicts. European Parliament member Sir Jack Stewart Clark predicts that the number of regular cocaine users in Western Europe may reach three to four million by the mid-1990’s. Spain already has an estimated 60,000 to 80,000 cocaine users.

The drug problem has grown so much that a United Nations study said that it is at the point now of endangering “the very security of some states.”

Why are drugs so much in the limelight? Indeed, why do people even take drugs? Why have large-scale efforts to contain the escalating drug problem failed? What can be done to stop the growing drug menace?

Drugs​—Dangerous and Deadly

DRUGS​—substances that affect the senses—​have a history that goes back to the earliest days of mankind. Natural substances that act on the nervous system were soon discovered: alcohol to relax a weary mind. Opiates to relieve pain and induce sleep. Coca leaves to numb the senses and increase endurance.

Alcohol has long been prominent. We are told in the Bible, at Genesis 9:20, 21, that “Noah started off as a farmer and proceeded to plant a vineyard. And he began drinking of the wine and became intoxicated.” Opium appears to have been known in ancient Mesopotamia and is recorded as being widely used in ancient Greece. Peyote, tobacco, coca, soma​—all have played parts throughout history.

Drugs have even found a niche in fictional literature. Homer told of the forgetfulness that befell some of Odysseus’ crew in the land of the lotus-eaters. The renowned fictional detective Sherlock Holmes injected a 7-percent solution of cocaine, which he found “transcendently stimulating and clarifying to the mind”​—a viewpoint similar to that promoted by the nonfictional Victorian intellectual Sigmund Freud.

The medicinal value of drugs was quickly noted, but their use was not limited to medicine. They came into widespread use in religious rituals. They were used in efforts to expand awareness, intensify feelings, enhance appreciation, alter mood, and increase capacity for love. But they also had an infinite capacity for destructiveness and creating social problems.

It is interesting to note that drugs outlawed today were not always viewed as detrimental to human health and welfare. For instance, in the latter half of the 19th century in the United States, cocaine, opium, and heroin were legal and readily available. They could be purchased without prescription from any pharmacy. Some were widely used in patent medicines. Coca-Cola contained cocaine for 17 years until it was replaced by caffeine in 1903.

Nations that today seek to suppress the drug trade once fought to expand it. The Opium Wars​—two trading wars fought in the mid-19th century when China tried to stop the illegal opium trade in her country—​ended in China’s defeat and the forced legalization of opium importation there.

A Victimless Crime?

Some today also favor the legalization of drugs. They see it as a solution to the dilemmas faced in dealing with the illicit drug trade. Others feel that the “recreational” use of drugs is a private and individual matter and regard the taking of drugs as a harmless diversion. But is the use of illicit drugs a “victimless crime,” as some claim? Consider the following:

● Twenty-six-year-old Natasha Ashley, eight and a half months pregnant, is talking with a female friend on the sidewalk in a section of New York City called Little Italy. Suddenly a car jumps the curb, hitting both women and pinning Ashley’s left leg against a light post, severely crushing it from the knee down. The friend’s leg is also broken. The police find the driver in a drugged stupor in his car, still clutching a hypodermic needle in his hand. “It looked like he had overdosed while driving,” said the paramedic attending the victims.

● Michael Perkins, only 12 years old, is dead​—killed in a fire that destroyed the apartment house in which he lived. Police say it was deliberately set by crack dealers after his father complained about their drug activities in the house.

● Rosa Urena will not enter college this fall or get married next year as she had planned. She was mortally wounded as she lay asleep on her bed, hit in the head by a stray bullet that smashed through her window and the headboard of her bed. Drug peddlers had riddled her building with bullets in a territorial claim.

● A 17-year-old crack addict goes on a robbing spree to support his drug habit. By the time he is apprehended eight days later, he has killed five people and wounded six others. “All of the victims were innocent working people,” noted the chief of detectives.

The above are but a few of the many drug-related incidents that took place in just one city this year. And they are increasing at an alarming rate.

How safe would you feel on the highway knowing that a certain percentage of the other drivers have taken a drug that impairs their judgment and reflexes? Would you be calm when boarding a bus, plane, or train while recognizing that those responsible for your safety may be under the influence of drugs? “Already there have been cases of addicted airline pilots, train crews, bus and truck drivers, company managers, doctors, teachers and others in authority who have created dangerous situations through ‘going on a mission’ [drug slang for getting high] while on duty,” notes the Manchester Guardian Weekly.

In an investigation of a recent fatal commuter-train crash in Mount Vernon, New York, all five of the train-control personnel involved tested positive for drugs. Said Federal Railroad administrator John H. Riley: “Over the last 16 months, we’ve averaged one major rail accident every 10 days in which alcohol or drug use was discovered, with more than 375 people killed or injured in those accidents. We have found drug-positive results in one of every five railroad accidents we’ve tested in the last two years, and 65 percent of our fatalities occurred in accidents where one or more employees tested positive for alcohol or drugs.”

Drugs and Crime

One does not have to be in transit to be a casualty of the drug scene. Victims are often those in their own homes and on the streets. Many drug addicts, driven by the need to sustain their expensive habit, resort to crime​—robbing, mugging, burglarizing. “A Justice Department study recently discovered that an astounding 79 percent of criminal defendants in some cities test positive for drug use,” states U.S.News & World Report.

Then there are the frequent shoot-outs between rival drug factions and the retaliatory measures taken against those who do not meet their payments. Innocent bystanders are often caught in these confrontations. “If a target happens to be in a group of four or five others,” says one official, “too bad for the four or five others.”

In the U.S. capital, Washington, D.C., there were 228 murders in 1987​—57 percent of them connected with narcotics. New York City tallied 1,691 murders, an average of over 4 a day. Over 38 percent of them were prompted by drugs. “The Oakland [California] Fire Department attributes more than 180 cases of arson in the city last year to warfare between drug gangs and reprisals against slow-paying customers or residents who complained publicly about the city’s wide-open commerce in crack, a potent form of cocaine,” says a New York Times report.

Society as a whole feels the effects of drug abuse​—increased crime and violence, the burdens of reduced economic productivity and tragic accidents, public corruption—​along with their high cost. But it is the drug abusers themselves who pay the highest price. How so?

The Dangers to Users

“Drug abuse is bad. It can destroy the mind and kill the body. In a word, it is stupid,” is the way it was put by Malcolm Lawrence, former special assistant to the U.S. Secretary of State for international narcotics control matters. But what about those who boast that they are not addicted and claim they can stop whenever they wish? “I know people who have taken crack several times and never did it again,” said one high school student.

“Certainly not every kid who takes a hit off a joint or drains a bottle of booze winds up as I did,” says former addict Ken Barun, who started with marijuana at age 16 and went on to pills, hallucinogens, heroin, and cocaine​—never expecting to see his 25th birthday. But many do develop drug dependency, and no one can say who that one will be until it is too late.

One problem is the disarming effect of drugs. Cocaine, for instance, which is currently one of the most abused, at first makes you feel stronger, more alert and confident, more in control of your life. The feeling is so good that it makes you want to try it again and again. But as you do, you start to feel bad without the drug​—edgy, confused, anxious, depressed. You need more. But with repeated use can come addiction and a host of problems that include paranoia, hallucination, and psychosis.

Researchers have discovered that cocaine use can permanently damage the heart and trigger heart attacks and strokes. Len Bias, a 22-year-old basketball star in the United States who died from a cocaine-induced heart attack in 1986, is said to have used the drug only once.

Crack, a derivative of cocaine, is even worse. “The special hazards of crack are due to the drug’s extremely high addiction potential and its ability to cause serious medical and psychiatric problems,” says the journal Medical Aspects of Human Sexuality. Because it is cheap and readily available, it finds a special appeal among the young. Crack users have been known to murder their parents and take their own lives.

“Reported cocaine-related deaths and hospital emergencies increased significantly from 1983 to 1986,” says a special report from the Comptroller General of the United States. The statistics gathered by DAWN (Drug Abuse Warning Network) from participating hospitals and medical examiners showed a 167-percent increase in hospital emergencies and a 124-percent increase in deaths due to the use of the drug in that period.

Tragic Effect on the Young

One of the most tragic results of drug abuse is the effect on children. “The story of child abuse and neglect in New York City during 1987 is the story of an explosion in drug abuse,” said a report by the Internal Fatality Review Panel of the Human Resources Administration. There were 46,713 reports of child abuse and neglect, and 103 of the children died. Additionally, during the city’s 1987 fiscal year, over 2,500 infants were born with drug-addiction withdrawal symptoms. Because of cocaine, many babies are also born prematurely and with low birth weight, as the drug limits the flow of blood to the placenta and reduces the supply of oxygen and nutrients that reach the fetus.

Babies are also being born with the dreadful AIDS virus, transmitted by intravenous drug abuse and passed on from the mother to her fetus. By the end of this year, about a thousand babies infected with the AIDS virus will have been born in New York City alone. “We have just begun to see the devastation,” says Dr. Leonard Glass, director of newborn services at Kings County Hospital Center. Three or four babies die of AIDS at this Brooklyn hospital each month.

With such dangerous and deadly consequences from drugs, you would think that the world would be up in arms against the drug trade, and it would be squashed. Why, then, is it increasing? Is there any hope ahead?

[Box on page 7]

Some Commonly Abused Drugs

Drug Possible Effects Risks of Abuse

[Picture on page 9]

The unborn are helpless victims of parental drug abuse

Drugs​—Is There Any Hope?

WHY have all efforts to stem the illicit drug tide failed? To put it in one word: MONEY. Drugs are big business. Profits are measured in the billions of dollars.

The total annual revenue from narcotics sales in the United States alone is estimated to be between $60 billion and $120 billion. With about $20 billion for expenses, it leaves a net profit of from $40 billion to $100 billion. “The drug trade, with a volume of $300 billion a year, is the world’s biggest business,” says World Press Review.

With so much money at their disposal, drug merchants have exploited man’s inherent greed and selfishness and have attained the power to do virtually whatever they want. “They don’t count their money anymore​—they weigh it,” said one police lieutenant. “They can buy off witnesses; they can buy off anybody they want to.” One drug dealer in Bolivia is reported to have offered to pay off the country’s entire debt of $3.8 billion if the authorities would refrain from trying to enforce the narcotics laws.

The cocaine and marijuana kingpins of the Western Hemisphere have even exceeded the influence of the more established opium lords of Asia. “Greasing palms and, when necessary, using the gun, the drug barons have spawned corruption from Bolivia to the Bahamas, and in more than one country are threatening to supplant elected government as the reigning power,” reports Time magazine. “We are up against an organization that is stronger than the state,” says former Colombian president Belisario Betancur.

He should know. In Colombia, members of the Medellín cartel, the drug lords who dominate the cocaine business, have waged a violent campaign against all who have opposed or sought to prosecute them. Included among those killed have been a justice minister, 21 judges, a newspaper editor, over a dozen journalists, and scores of soldiers and policemen. “Never before has a criminal enterprise managed to so intimidate a major nation,” notes Newsweek. “Colombian judges fear to judge; policemen fear to arrest. Critical journalists now often write their columns from abroad, where they have plenty of company from other Colombians who have fled for their lives.”

War on Drug Supply Lost

Because of the money factor, the war to cut off drug supplies has failed on all levels. Farmers continue to grow coca, marijuana, and opium poppies, which pay several times more than the subsistence wage they may earn with conventional crops. To them the drug lords are benefactors who bolster the economy. Many police and customs officers continue to look the other way when drugs are being smuggled and earn up to $50,000 or more each time just for doing so.

Dealers also initiate children as young in age as nine or ten into the lucrative drug scene: earning 25 cents for each empty crack vial they collect off the streets, $100 a day for serving as a lookout to warn of police, $300 a day as a runner transporting drugs, and up to $3,000 a day as a teenage dealer. By flaunting their wealth before their schoolmates in their purchases of furs, heavy gold chains, and expensive cars, they entice still others.

Terrorists have found in drugs the means to finance their operations. They, in turn, give assistance to the drug traffickers. Some political leaders use the drug trade both to enrich themselves and to undermine enemy governments. Arrests or convictions do not deter them. The profits to be made are so immense that as soon as one dealer or corrupt official is struck down, two more stand up to take his place.

“Drug production and trafficking unfortunately remain big business, and drug abuse levels all over the world continue to rise,” says a U.S. State Department report made public in March. “Corruption of government officials and law enforcement officers, bribery, trafficker intimidation and violence, and the stark fact that nations are outmanned, outgunned and outspent by narcotics traffickers, continue to undermine global efforts to stop narcotics production and trafficking.” Where, then, is there hope?

Is Reducing Demand the Answer?

Some feel it lies in reducing the demand side of the drug trade. Like other businesses, the international drug trade works on both supply and demand. Without the present seemingly insatiable demand for drugs, the drug flow would dry up. Yet, despite warnings, increased education, drug testing, and pleas to ‘say no to drugs,’ drug use continues unabated. Even worse, it is spreading.

“Other countries around the world are just getting hooked,” notes a Time report. “America’s drug culture has been exported to European and Asian youth. Although statistics are hard to come by, drug use seems to be expanding worldwide, especially in the countries that export drugs to the U.S.” Bolivia, for one, has seen a recent upsurge in drug addiction. While coca is legally grown there for leaf chewing and tea, increasing numbers of youths are becoming addicted to a poisonous, smokable form of cocaine called basuco. And Vietnam reports a dramatic rise in opium and heroin addiction among young people in both the south and the north. All told, there are reported to be some 40 million users of illegal drugs worldwide.

It is now conceded that the drug problem is beyond the ability of any one nation to control. Will all the nations, then, band together and curb the present scourge? Such complete cooperation is most unlikely, considering the greed and profit motives that run so high in the illicit drug trade​—not to mention the irreconcilable political differences. Some nations refrain from invoking meaningful sanctions against political allies even though they are centers of the drug trade. Besides, millions of people depend on drug crops for their livelihood. “There are countries that would simply collapse if the drug business were to disappear overnight,” says World Press Review.

Where Hope Lies

At most, authorities hope for a reduction in drug abuse and, in time, a gradual lessening of the current drug craze. However, total eradication of the drug problem is a valid hope. It is found in the Bible’s promise: “They will not do any harm or cause any ruin in all my holy mountain; because the earth will certainly be filled with the knowledge of Jehovah as the waters are covering the very sea.” (Isaiah 11:9; Habakkuk 2:14) ‘No harm or ruin’ includes all the hurtful problems that stem from drug abuse.

But note the reason why: The earth is to be “filled with the knowledge of Jehovah.” Strong motivation is essential in steering away from drug abuse. Love of Jehovah God and a desire to please him, based on accurate knowledge of him and his ways, have helped many to break free from the influence of drugs. Take the example of Angelo.

Now 60, Angelo had a long history as a drug abuser, back to 1964. Introduced to the drug scene by friends who seemed to be having a great time, Angelo started with marijuana and progressed through cocaine, hashish, morphine, and “five-star acid” (LSD), to name a few. “I was constantly getting high,” says Angelo. “Every day I got high. I felt I could run the world. My head was in orbit. At that time the astronauts were going to the moon, and I wanted to go beyond.”

But the drugs also produced hallucinations, moodiness, withdrawal from society, and a desire to commit suicide. “In March of ’79, I got to reading the Bible,” says Angelo. “I had been having hallucinations and wanted to commit suicide. But I thought I would first find out where I would be going when I died. Some Witnesses came to my door, and I insisted they explain the Bible to me. From a study of the Bible, I realized that taking drugs is against God’s law​—that our bodies belong to God, and as 2 Corinthians 7:1 says, we are to keep them from ‘defilement.’”

How did he break free from drugs? “Praying, sincerely praying,” says Angelo, “along with studying the Bible daily. You’ve got to have a strong determination to give up drugs. It’s not easy by any means. But I felt Jehovah knew my heart, and as Proverbs 3:5, 6 implies, I could lean on him. I feel personally that it took Jehovah to set me straight, knowing the craving that I had.”

Like Angelo, many others have realized that with strong motivation, faith in God, and reliance on his help, along with the support of concerned, loving associates, the deadly drug habit can be broken. But how “will they put faith in him of whom they have not heard?” the Bible asks at Romans 10:14. The publishers of this magazine will be happy to help you gain that “accurate knowledge” of God and the sure hope of finding everlasting life in a drug-free new world.​—Ephesians 1:17; Romans 15:4.