Pubdate: Tue, 10 Apr 2007
Source: Herald-Dispatch, The (Huntington, WV)
Copyright: 2007 The Herald-Dispatch
Contact:  http://www.hdonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1454
Author: Howard J. Wooldridge
Note: Howard J. Wooldridge is a retired police officer and an 
education specialist for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, based 
in Washington, D.C.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?203 (Terrorism)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Howard+Wooldridge (Howard Wooldridge)

LEGALIZING DRUGS IS BETTER WAY TO FIGHT PROBLEM

The War on Drugs. How is that working for us in America? Is it 
reducing crime? Is it reducing our rates of death and disease? Is it 
effective in keeping drugs and drug dealers away from our children? 
These are important questions because our current prohibition 
strategy will cost us, the taxpayers, some $70 billion this year.

As a police officer, I fought on the side of the "good guys" for 18 
years in the War on Drugs, giving me frontline, actual experience in 
the trenches. After much time, consternation and out-and-out 
frustration with not achieving a single, policy directed long-term 
goal, I came to the conclusion that we must be doing something wrong.

It seemed no matter how many dealers we took off the streets, new 
ones immediately popped up to take their places. The prices for drugs 
kept falling, indicating an oversupply. The purity kept increasing; 
heroin increased from 3.6 percent to near 50 percent purity between 
1980 and 2007. The prison population kept growing. Now more than 70 
percent of all inmates are incarcerated on some drug-related charge.

Meanwhile, terrorists and drug barons amass fortunes from drug sales 
and people continue to die on our streets. We have turned Third World 
thugs into billionaires who can buy governments and finance terrorism 
around the world. Our prisons are filled with non-violent offenders 
while murderers, rapists and child molesters (not subject to 
mandatory minimums) get early release due to over-crowding.

The only thing we have to show for this terrible policy is that today 
- -- after 36 years and a trillion tax dollars spent -- illegal drugs 
are cheaper, stronger and easier than ever for our kids to buy. The 
return on our investment has been zero.

The unintended consequences of this terrible war are needlessly 
destroying the lives of generations of America's youth. Drug 
prohibition is truly the very definition of failed public policy.

How many people do you know or know of who have used an illegal drug, 
put the drugs behind them and gone on to lead productive lives? U.S. 
presidents, members of our legislative bodies, even tens of thousands 
of police officers, have done exactly that. With imprisonment, those 
possibilities are eliminated. You can recover from an addiction, but 
never from a conviction.

We should be putting much more effort into education and treatment.

Education has to be based in fact and not on emotional scare tactics.

The treatment needs to be voluntary. Forced treatment is not much 
different than government attempts at brainwashing. Published studies 
state that if substances were indeed regulated and taxed, adequate 
monies could easily be raised for treatment programs. The glamour 
appeal of presently illicit drugs would be reduced.

A wise ancient once said, "No matter how far down the wrong road you 
have gone, turn around."

I ask you to envision a world where no drugs were sold on street 
corners by teens, where terrorists are not funded by drug sales, 
where the police focus on drunken drivers and child predators, real 
crime is down 50 percent and if you or a loved one have a drug 
problem, you see a doctor, not a judge. That world is possible when 
the government regulates, controls and manages all drugs.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake