Fighting the “War on Drugs”

Fighting the “War on Drugs”

Sunday morning in the capital city of a midwestern state. Four people sit at a table in the corner of a deserted hotel ballroom, sipping dreadful coffee and eating scrambled eggs and sweet rolls. They are there because the SENATOR has flown back from Washington—and his LEGISLATIVE ASSISTANT has called a meeting of the committee of local consultants hired to work out a drug program that would attract national attention and help the Senator raise money in other states. At the table are the state COMMISSIONER of education, a black Ph.D., a political veteran with few illusions; the LIBERAL MANAGER, a woman who heads a local health organization called the Coalition of Urban Neighborhoods; and a HIPPIE PHILOSOPHER in beard, tie, and Italian suit, who was a roving Maoist in the sixties but has since become a successful television producer and film consultant to the Senator.