Pubdate: Fri, 29 Aug 2003
Source: Reason Online (US Web)
Copyright: 2003 The Reason Foundation
Contact:  http://www.reason.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2688
Author: Jacob Sullum

ALTERED MINDS

Former drug warriors turn against prohibition.

In the 1980s, not many people could plausibly claim stronger anti-drug
credentials than Nancy Reagan. But Forest Tennant could.

"It's great for the Reagans to get up and say, 'Let's do something about the
drug problem,' but I don't know who's going to do it," he told the Los
Angeles Times in 1986. "Only true professional people like myself can do
very much with the drug problem."

The remark was characteristically haughty, but Tennant had the training,
experience, and reputation to back it up. A physician and researcher with a
doctorate in public health, he operated a chain of drug treatment clinics in
California and was widely cited and consulted as an expert on drug abuse and
addiction.

Tennant has published hundreds of scientific articles, testified in
high-profile trials, and advised the NFL, NASCAR, the California Highway
Patrol, the Food and Drug Administration, and the National Institute on Drug
Abuse. The Times described him as "riding at the forefront of the current
wave of anti-drug sentiment."

So when the folks at the Hoover Institution who produce the PBS show
Uncommon Knowledge were looking for someone to debate drug policy with me,
Tennant must have seemed like a natural choice. Imagine their surprise when
he ended up agreeing that the war on drugs has been a disastrous mistake.

To be sure, Tennant is not completely comfortable with the idea of treating
all psychoactive substances the way we treat alcohol. Among other things, he
worries about underage access and legal liability issues.

But Tennant concedes that only a small percentage of drug users become
addicted, that the drug laws are not very effective at preventing abuse, and
that any increase in addiction that follows the repeal of prohibition is apt
to be small. Equally important, he has come to realize after decades of
dealing with addiction that the war on drugs imposes tremendous costs in
exchange for its dubious benefits.

Tennant says the September 11 attacks had a big impact on his thinking about
drug policy. He recognized that the connection between drugs and terrorism,
cited by the government to justify the war on drugs, was actually a
consequence of prohibition, which makes the drug trade a highly lucrative
business and delivers it into the hands of criminals. "We've got to take the
profit out of it," he says.

Tennant is also troubled by the impact that U.S. drug policy has on
countries such as Colombia, where it empowers thugs and guerillas, sows
violence, undermines law and order, and wreaks havoc on the economy. And he
believes the war on drugs has fostered systemic corruption in the United
States. "We need to try something different," he says.

As a first step, Tennant would like to see states experiment with various
approaches to drug policy, including decriminalization of marijuana, a drug
he considers much less dangerous than the government claims. He thinks it
plausible that in 15 years Americans will be able to purchase pot legally.

This is the same man who made waves in the 1980s by promoting a home eye
test kit to help parents detect and deter drug use by their children.
Parents were supposed to administer the test every few days, beginning when
their kids were about 7. No one could have accused Forest Tennant of being
soft on drugs.

Tennant is by no means the only former drug warrior who has become a critic
of current policy. Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), founded last
year, includes more than 400 current and former police officers, judges,
federal agents, prosecutors, and parole, probation, and corrections
officers. The group is headed by Jack Cole, a 26-year veteran of the New
Jersey State Police who worked in narcotics enforcement for 14 years.

"After three decades of fueling the US war on drugs with over half a
trillion tax dollars and increasingly punitive policies," says LEAP,
"illicit drugs are easier to get, cheaper, and more potent than they were 30
years ago. While our court system is choked with ever-increasing drug
prosecutions, our quadrupled prison population has made building prisons
this nation's fastest growing industry...Meanwhile people are dying in our
streets and drug barons grow richer than ever before. We must change these
policies."

As an attorney quoted in a recent Seattle Weekly article about LEAP
observed, "The news story is not that the war on drugs has failed. It's
who's saying it now."

Jacob Sullum is a senior editor at Reason and the author of Saying Yes: In
Defense of Drug Use
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