Pubdate: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 Source: Courier (Pasadena City College, CA Edu) Copyright: 2009 Courier Contact: http://www.pcccourier.com/home/lettertotheeditor/ Website: http://www.pcccourier.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3726 Note: LTE priority is given to people who reside in California Author: Barbara Beaser, Editor-in-Chief Cited: LEAP speakers http://www.leap.cc/cms/index.php?name=Speakers Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Norm+Stamper THE WAR ON DRUGS IS LOST Americans have a tendency to declare war on abstractions. We've declared war on terror, on poverty, and of course, our war on drugs. This vague idea of drugs as an enemy that's conquerable is why drugs are winning. This war began back in Nixon's era, when in 1971 he said drug abuse is "public enemy number one in the United States." Ironically, it was during his administration that the majority of funds for the "war" went toward treatment, rather than law enforcement. The trend did not last. The proof lies in the ever-growing number of drug offenders in our prisons, which tells one compelling and disturbing story: That the war on drugs is not so much on drugs as it is on people, and because of that, it's failing. This theory is not new. People have been calling for drug policy reform for years. People like Norm Stamper, retired police chief for Seattle and a speaker for LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.) "It's not hard to understand the reasons for all this reform agitation: dismal economic conditions; impossible pressures on the criminal justice system (especially our overpopulated prisons); escalating fears of drug cartel violence, and their insidious, expanding influence; and moral outrage at the damage the drug war has done our families and communities," Stamper wrote in his Oct. 7 blog on huffingtonpost.com. The war is more of a mass sweeping under the rug. Drug dealers and addicts are put in prison, where most will not receive treatment or job training. If and when people are released, depending on which state they're incarcerated in, the system generally sends them right back to where they were arrested. Authorities arrest people in indiscriminate groups and call it an "amazing drug bust." A casual pot smoker caught at the wrong place at the wrong time may spend years in prison. A crack addict may spend a couple months incarcerated, then be released without treatment or any support. A non-violent drug dealer could get more time than a murderer. About 40 years after the war began, it seems the casualties are mostly ours. Drugs have become more potent while billions are spent trying to prevent people from obtaining them. (It hasn't worked.) Interdiction raises the price for drugs, which raises the profits for those selling them. As job losses increase, selling drugs may seem to some the only viable option. In many places, it's the only way people know how to live. The war on drugs is actually a war on everyone. Increased prison populations, the destruction of neighborhoods, families and individuals due to what Stamper calls "the ruinous nature of our drug laws" will in the end leave no one untouched. Drop the moral outrage at the idea of drugs and gain the moral outrage for fellow human beings suffering and being punished for it. The war is over, and we lost. We need to acknowledge that and try something else. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake