Carpet of Blue

Bouza ( The Police Mystique ), a former Minneapolis police chief who's appeared on Oprah, Good Morning America and the Today Show , argues that we have no overriding drug control policy and that repression, exemplified by cops flushing out street-level drug dealers (the ``carpet of blue''), can't work. He mainly adopts familiar liberal arguments, calling for an attack on root causes like racism and poverty and emphasizing prevention and education. Bouza cites his own experience regarding both the importance and the political difficulty of catching top drug dealers--he offers the example of one drug kingpin who was a ``respected benefactor'' of his town. After talking to recovering teenage drugs abusers (his only new research), Bouza suggests that they be guided back to different schools or homes outside their old environments. Though he doesn't endorse legalization, Bouza does argue that drugs should be seen more as a public health problem than as a criminal justice problem. Despite the book's limitations, Bouza's status as an ex-cop and his attack on our society's materialistic values--including his pointed use of the term ``exploitive overclass'' to describe those living comfortably--should keep him in the spotlight as a spokesman. Author tour. (Mar.)