Pubdate: Mon, 18 Jul 2005
Source: Daily Times, The (TN)
Copyright: 2005 Horvitz Newspapers
Contact:  http://www.thedailytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1455
Author: Steve Wildsmith
Note: Steve Wildsmith is a recovering addict and the Weekend editor for The
Daily Times.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?219 (Students for Sensible Drug Policy)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hea.htm (Higher Education Act)

LEGISLATORS MAY DO MORE HARM THAN GOOD

A co-worker shared a press release with me the other day from an
organization called Students for Sensible Drug Policy.

The release detailed how senators are considering legislation
addressing the provision of the Higher Education Act that denies
federal financial aid to students with drug convictions. The
organization (which you can check out yourself online at
www.daregeneration.com) opposes such provisions, arguing that they
force students convicted of drug charges to drop out of school, making
them more likely to continue abusing drugs and engaging in criminal
activity. The organization claims such provisions will
disproportionately affect minorities and students from low- and
middle-income families, since better-off students can afford to pay
for tuition on their own (and hire good lawyers to avoid drug
convictions in the first place).

Having never heard of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, I checked out
the organization's Web site to see what it's all about. The group's
mission statement declares that ``SSDP is a non-violent youth-oriented
organization that neither encourages nor condemns drug use. Rather, we
seek to reduce the harms caused by drug abuse and drug policies. We
believe that in order to protect the autonomy of individuals' minds,
bodies and spirit, drug laws and policies must always respect personal
choice and freedom so long as a person's actions do not infringe upon
another's freedoms or safety.

``Students for Sensible Drug Policy is committed to providing
education on harms caused by the War on Drugs, working to involve
youth in the political process, and promoting an open, honest, and
rational discussion of alternative solutions to our nation's drug
problems.''

More organizations than ever before, it seems, are targeting the U.S.
government's war on drugs, not because they're pro-drug, but because
they view it as a catastrophic failure. I share those views. Consider:

- - America has the harshest punishments and the highest addiction rates
in the free world. There has never even been a government claim of
reduced addiction in the past 30 years.

- - There are now 12 times as many drug offenders in state prisons as
there were in 1980, yet the supply and demand hasn't diminished.

- - Government spending has increased dramatically, from $60 million
under President Nixon to $17.1 billion under President Clinton. Yet
drugs are more available than ever.

- - Police arrest approximately 1.6 million Americans per year on drug
charges, three times as many as they did in 1980 -- another indication
that the Drug War isn't stopping the flow of drugs to our streets or
weakening the demand for them.

At the same time, the Drug War does little to address prevention and
treatment, two methods that study after study has shown are
indispensable when it comes to having an impact on the consumption of
illegal drugs in this country. In fact, one 1994 study by the RAND
Coporation found that to achieve a 1 percent reduction in U.S. cocaine
consumption, the United States could spend an additional $34 million
on drug treatment programs, or 23 times as much -- $783 million -- on
efforts to eradicate the supply at the source.

The solution, to anyone with a modicum of common sense, is to go with
the cheaper, but just as effective, option. But government bureaucrats
are known for their common sense, which is why the Drug War keeps
failing yet the expenses keep mounting.

So why is it so difficult for the United States government to accept
the fact that the Drug War, as we've fought it to this point, has
failed? I wish I knew the answer to that. I'm not sure anyone,
including the politicians who vote to keep throwing money away, knows
the answer. But it's a topic worth talking about, and one I hope to
address from time to time in this column.

Steve Wildsmith is a recovering addict and the Weekend editor for The
Daily Times.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin