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WHY THE WAR AGAINST DRUGS CAN'T BE WON   The war against narcotic drugs is both costly and futile. As anyone with a basic understanding of economics knows: wherever there is a demand for a product there will be a supply. Drugs are no exception. It is impossible to stop the supply of drugs no matter how many shipments are seized by government agencies and regardless of how many dealers are sent to prison. The only way the drug trade can be stopped is to stop the demand which under current conditions is equally impossible.    To stop the demand for drugs (or at least reduce it) it must first be understood that people use drugs to escape reality and to feel better. It is ironic that more than half of the world's illicit drugs are used in the US. Ironic because the US is widely regarded (especially by Americans) as the best country in the world to live.    It is interesting to note that the use of narcotics in Third World countries is minor compared to drug use in highly industrialized countries. Similarly, drug use is far higher in cities than in the countryside.    So what are people trying to escape from in the urban areas of the industrialized West? The first thing that comes to mind is boredom. Not boredom in the sense of having nothing to do, but boredom with the things most people must do such as making a living by doing mind-debilitating tasks. How many people would go back to work tomorrow if they didn't need the money their jobs pay? Many people feel trapped: trapped in their work, in their relationships, in their obligations.    Millions try to escape these realities through narcotics, usually ending up in the long run with even worse problems. Most people float around in what they perceive as an incomprehensible, unjust, drivel-driven world without a firm grip on their rudder, i.e. without a sense of direction. They see no hope of escape except temporarily through drugs or more permanently through a belief system such as a religion or a strongly adhered to philosophy that makes sense of what appears to be a meaningless world. In a senseless world, pleasure is the prime commodity that provides relief. Drugs and sex are such commodities, however fleeting the pleasures may prove to be.    We live in a world where so much is known about sex and so little about love, so much about money and so little about value, so much about competition and so little about cooperation, so much about grabbing and so little about giving, so much about violence and so little about peace. In this world people are willing to pay a high price for comfort and escape, no matter what the consequences. So long as life is based largely on shallow motivations and empty promises, the demand for drugs will remain as strong as the supply wil be abundant and the so-called war against drugs will remain as futile as it is costly: VERY!