Pubdate: Sun, 03 Oct 2010
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA)
Copyright: 2010 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc
Contact:  http://www.philly.com/inquirer/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/340
Author: Neill Franklin
Note: Neill Franklin is the executive director of Law Enforcement 
Against Prohibition; he served with the Maryland State Police and the 
Baltimore Police Department

ONLY UNDER LEGALIZATION CAN WE CONTROL DRUG USE

Having spent 33 years as a police officer making my share of drug 
busts and sending countless "messages" to dealers and users alike, I 
agree with Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams that "going 
after the kid who's smoking a joint" will not solve our drug 
problems. Williams recently decided to downgrade minor 
marijuana-possession penalties from jail time to community service.

Sadly, though, "going after" the larger sellers and producers will 
not solve our drug problem, either. At least not until we get smart 
about how we go after them.

When my squad arrested a rapist or bank robber, we changed the world. 
We took the threat off the streets. When we arrested a drug dealer, 
at any level, we only created a job opening - quickly filled by 
people more desperate, ruthless, and well-armed than those they replaced.

Since President Richard Nixon declared his "War on Drugs" four 
decades ago, we have made about 40 million drug arrests. Yet today 
drugs are more potent, affordable, and far more widely used by 
Americans, especially our children, who report on federal surveys 
that it is easier for them to get illegal drugs than alcohol.

Philadelphia defendants avoid prosecution in nearly two-thirds of 
violent-crime cases, but it's not because of poor policing; it's 
because of poor priorities - the drug laws - which deflect our 
attention and resources away from those crimes.

In the 1960s, we solved nearly 90 percent of all homicides 
nationally. But federal drug policies have shifted our focus from 
such crimes to mostly consensual nonviolent activities, where cops 
don't belong in a free society. As a result, some people are 
literally getting away with murder. Nationally today, we solve only 
six out of 10 homicides.

The War on Drugs targets the poorly educated, low-income, and people 
of color, and deprives them of opportunities for advancement, thus 
throwing them back into the only place they are welcome, the drug 
culture. It's a self-perpetuating, dysfunctional dance that yields 
street crime, needle-spread diseases such as AIDS and hepatitis, and 
encourages kids to drop out of school to chase the remote possibility 
of the big score in "the dope game."

The problem will not be solved at the margins. The problem is 
prohibition itself, a policy that should be replaced with strict, 
legalized regulation.

Modest marijuana reforms like Williams' new policy in Philadelphia, 
though, do underscore the insanity and irrationality of our overall 
approach. If it makes no sense to charge, convict, and sentence 
someone for using marijuana, why is it a police priority to arrest 
the person who sells it to him? If it is a consensual sale between 
adults, why is the state, in the form of the police, involved in the 
first place?

Education, social pressure, and smart regulation work. Prohibition 
doesn't. Never has, never will. Remember the "noble experiment" of 
banning alcohol?

More and more cops are saying we need to legalize drugs - not because 
we think they are safe, but because only through legalization can we 
regulate, control, and keep them out of the hands of our children. 
Our greatest drug-related public health victory - virtually our only 
such victory - has been the dramatic reduction in cigarette smoking. 
And that was achieved through education and regulation. We didn't 
have to send a single person to jail.

Our grandparents had the wisdom to end alcohol prohibition, not 
because they decided booze was a harmless drug - far from it. They 
realized that police and judicial corruption, street violence, and 
unnecessary deaths from an unregulated drug were the inevitable 
result of a prohibition on consensual "crime." They realized that 
legalized regulation would sharply reduce the street violence and 
corruption that had reached historic highs, while cutting the cartels 
of their day - think Al Capone - off at the knees.

They were right.

The only thing today's cartels really fear is a legalized, tightly 
regulated market. The only smart way to cut them off at the knees is 
to abandon the futile paramilitary approach that keeps them and their 
street thugs armed and dangerous.

Of course the court system will be improved as Philadelphia removes 
some marijuana cases under Williams' new approach. But this is just a 
fraction of the drug-war caseload that comprises at least 30 percent 
of Philadelphia's total arrests every year.

And this well-intentioned reform won't fundamentally alter policing 
procedures; without meaningful change in drug policy, the arrests 
will continue. As Philadelphia police spokesman Frank Vanone put it: 
"Until they legalize it, we're not going to stop" arresting people 
for marijuana.

Cops don't have to be pawns in this endless tail-chasing game. We 
deserve better.

All citizens deserve better.

It's time.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart