John McCain and Barack Obama were on the never-ending campaign trail again last week, and for once, one of the candidates actually talked about the never-ending war on drugs.

The problem is that Sen. McCain was doing his talking in Colombia, where the fight to control the production and distribution of cocaine to America never has succeeded, despite billions upon billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars being spent to do so. And what he said was nothing new.

"There is a long way to go to stem the flow of drugs into the United States of America," McCain said. "The progress I've seen since previous visits here has been substantial and positive."

I'm not sure what "substantial and positive" progress he saw there. But he should be looking a lot closer to home, where the true cost of drug addiction really matters. And here, McCain would have a tough time pointing to any successful benchmarks in this war.

There won't be any, either, at least not while the laws of supply and demand are focused disproportionately on the supply in foreign countries at the expense of the demand here.

Dear Mr. Moyers: In 1980, I was 19. Back then, cocaine was deemed a party drug, and I must admit I played with it and really did have some fun, so to speak. I stopped using it not long after college; it wasn't fun, and besides, it was too expensive. Just last week, my daughter was raped and badly beaten. She was buying crack cocaine to feed her addiction in a big city, a world away from the quiet suburbs in which we raised her. We are simply shocked, not just by the crime against her but by the crime she was committing: possessing an illegal, dangerous substance! That's not the little girl or the young woman we ever have known! How did we let this happen? Why did she do this? — Glenn D. near Danbury, Conn.

Dear Glenn: First, you didn't let this happen. No parent aspires to raise a child who grows up to become addicted. So it is not your fault. Like a lot of teenagers (including, apparently, you), at some point, she began to experiment and from there, progressively slid down a slope to the dangerous world of the inner-city streets, where cocaine buys are as common as taxicabs. Why she did this is really a moot point. The potent craving to get high hijacks addicts' brains and subsumes all rational thoughts and fundamental values. Addicts will do anything to get fixes, no matter where they have to go to get them. The question is how to get her help. Treatment is available in your community. That's what she needs. The drugs never will go away by themselves. What will make them go away is her desire not to use them.

Both the McCain and Obama campaigns are ruthlessly relentless in exploiting the other's misstatements and missteps on the trail. Such is politics today. Yet Sen. Obama did not respond to McCain's claims about success in Colombia. Too bad. It is people of color — especially black and brown — who are the real victims of a war on drugs that disproportionately puts them behind bars instead of giving them a way out through treatment.

Dear Mr. Moyers: Thank you for coming to talk to us here. There ain't much hope in prison. You gave me some. You turned your life around from drugs. Maybe I can, too, someday. In five more years, I get that chance when I get out of here. It means no more drugs. That's kind of scary 'cause getting high is all I've ever known really. On the streets, that's my world. I gotta do it, too. I can't live my life in lockup. — Danny (at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Faribault)

Besides telling my own story as an addict who found recovery, there isn't much else I can do for Danny. But I know two people who will get that chance later this year. One of them is about to become our next president.

William C. Moyers is the vice president of external affairs for the Hazelden Foundation and the author of "Broken," a best-selling memoir. The paperback edition was released in August 2007. Please send your questions to William Moyers at William@WilliamMoyers.com. To find out more about William Moyers and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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