Pubdate: Mon, 16 Mar 2009 Source: Post and Courier, The (Charleston, SC) Copyright: 2009 Evening Post Publishing Co. Contact: http://www.charleston.net/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/567 Note: Letters from newspaper's circulation area receive publishing priority Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis) KICK THE DRUG WAR HABIT In 1971, President Richard Nixon declared a "war on drugs." Seven presidents later, the drugs are still winning. That doesn't mean outlawed drugs should be legalized. It does mean, however, that a thorough re-examination of how to deter illegal-drug use and counter the vicious criminal enterprises that thrive on it is long overdue. President Barack Obama sent a clear signal last week of a comprehensive shift on this front by naming Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske head of the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy. Mr. Kerlikowske has long emphasized prevention and treatment over punishment. After being introduced in his new role, Mr. Kerlikowske accurately stressed that we can't reduce the grim costs of illegal drug use, and the huge profits of the illegal drug trade, without reducing America's massive appetite for dope. Mr. Kerlikowske explained: "That starts with our youth. Our nation's drug problem is one of human suffering, and as a police officer but also in my own family, I have experienced the effects that drugs can have on our youth, our families and our communities." Mr. Kerlikowske was referring to his stepson, Jeffrey, who has a drug history that includes multiple arrests. Few American families have escaped similar heartaches. You don't have to be "soft on crime" to realize that the "war on drugs" has failed. Some distinguished conservatives, including George Schultz, the late Milton Friedman and the late William F. Buckley have, to varying degrees, supported drug decriminalization and even legalization. Such decriminalization arguments are particularly persuasive in the case of marijuana. Chicago Tribune columnist Steve Chapman, a libertarian, recently wrote about a commission chaired by three former heads of state in Latin America. In a column that ran on our Feb. 21 Commentary page, Mr. Chapman, citing the commission's findings, pointed out that the huge profits to be reaped from American drug use have inflicted horrendous consequences south of our border, including "the expansion of organized crime, a surge of violence related to drug trafficking and pandemic corruption among law enforcement personnel from the street level on up." Mr. Chapman concluded that we should consider treating "recreational drug use (like drinking or smoking cigarettes) as a vice, not a crime." That column caught the eye, and stirred the ire, of Charleston County Police Chief Al Cannon, who responded with a column of his own that ran in our newspaper last week. The sheriff dismissed the "war on drugs" label as "an inaccurate and worn-out analogy." He also warned that legalization would merely prompt drug dealers to "look around and figure how to beat the system, the way they do with prescription drugs." That's a persuasive point. But whatever you call our nation's costly campaign against illegal drugs, it's producing war-like casualties in Mexico, where more than 6,000 were killed in drug-gang violence last year. That carnage threatens to spill across our border. And while our wide-ranging anti-drug mission isn't technically a "war," our Coast Guard and National Guard are participating in it. Sheriff Cannon approves of the National Guard's role. Local police chiefs Greg Mullen (Charleston) and Jon Zumalt (North Charleston) are leery about it. Many corrections officials are leery about the stunning growth in the number of incarcerated Americans over the last two decades, stemming to a significant degree from lengthy sentences for drug trafficking. Unfortunately, plenty of willing replacements are primed to take over for dealers who get locked up. That's because, while much has changed in the nearly four decades since President Nixon sounded the battle cry against illegal drugs, this indisputable marketplace fact persists: There's a lot of money to be made on Americans' dope habits. There is ample reason to do a comprehensive review of what has and hasn't worked in our continuing struggle to minimize illegal drugs' tragic toll. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin