Editorial August 20, 1990 Issue

The war on drugs—a spiritual warfare

Elaine Natale

Powerful drug cartels intimidating individuals and governments. Neighborhoods overrun by dealers competing for the huge amounts of money to be made. Kids and adults losing control over their own lives. A vicious circle of weakness, ignorance, and greed played over and over on many different levels. The scourge cuts across social, economic, and racial lines. The effects are so widespread that everyone is directly or indirectly involved in the "war on drugs," like it or not.

Some fight discouragement. Recently a police officer called drug activity in his community "a tidal wave we can't seem to stop." Even while making heroic efforts to curtail the drug trade, we sense that simply destroying drugs and putting people in jail won't be enough.

There's no arguing that certain individuals need to be brought to justice and harmful substances removed from circulation. Yet the culprit of all the drug-related crime and suffering is a mentality—a current of material thinking that must change if anything else is to change permanently.

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