Pubdate: Thu, 16 Jun 2011
Source: Palm Beach Post, The (FL)
Copyright: 2011 The Palm Beach Post
Contact:  http://www.palmbeachpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/333
Authors: Mark Schneider and Steve Ellman
Note: Steve Ellman and Mark Schneider serve on the drug policy reform 
committee of the Palm Beach County chapter of the American Civil 
Liberties Union.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Cited: http://www.globalcommissionondrugs.org/

40 YEARS OF WAR ON DRUGS FAILURE: RETHINK THE WAR-FIGHTING MODEL

Forty years ago today, President Richard Nixon declared our nation's 
War on Drugs. That is more than enough time to evaluate the war's 
costs and benefits: In dealing with the problems of drug abuse, it 
has failed. It is time for a new approach.

The most recent assessment of this war came this month from the 
Global Commission on Drug Policy, a group of 19 political, business 
and cultural leaders including Reagan-era Secretary of State George 
Schultz and former Federal Reserve chief Paul Volcker. Calling for an 
end to the war-fighting model, they wrote:

"Vast expenditures on criminalization and repressive measures 
directed at producers, traffickers and consumers of illegal drugs 
have clearly failed to effectively curtail supply or consumption. 
Repressive efforts directed at consumers impede public health 
measures to reduce HIV/AIDS, overdose fatalities and other harmful 
consequences of drug use. Government expenditures on futile supply 
reduction strategies and incarceration displace more cost-effective 
and evidence-based investments in demand and harm reduction."

The commission noted that current policies have generated massive 
violence and undermined political stability in drug-producing and 
distributing countries. At the same time, such countries as 
Switzerland, Portugal and the Netherlands, which have replaced 
repression with harm-reduction, have seen significant public health 
benefits and, in the case of heroin, reductions in use and addiction.

Of particular concern, the War on Drugs has led to widespread 
violations of constitutional and human rights, racially skewed 
enforcement, and an explosion in the U.S. prison population, by far 
the world's largest. In 2008, four out of five arrests were for mere 
possession of drugs, one-half of those for marijuana. Due to 
selective enforcement, those imprisoned are primarily minorities.

While there is no evidence to support that African-Americans use 
drugs at a higher rate than white Americans, and although they make 
up only 12.6 percent of the general population, African-Americans 
account for 37 percent of total drug arrests annually and 56 percent 
of incarcerations. As Georgetown University law Professor David Cole 
put it, were whites being arrested at the same rate as blacks, "We 
would almost certainly see this as an urgent national calamity, and 
demand a collective investment of public resources to forestall so 
many going to prison."

Florida's drug laws, which require minimum mandatory sentences, are 
among the nation's most punitive. As a result, nonviolent drug 
offenders make up one-third of our prison population. In a time when 
the state cannot adequately fund education and social services, the 
fiscal consequences of rampant, unnecessary levels of incarceration 
have drawn overdue attention to drug policy.

In Florida, a more sensible approach is slowly coming. This year, the 
Legislature approved a pilot drug court program to divert some 
first-time offenders from the lifelong revolving door of the criminal 
justice system. A bill was also filed to eliminate or restructure 
minimum mandatory prison sentences for drug possession. The 
governor's law and order transition team joined Florida TaxWatch, the 
Collins Center for Public Policy and others in calling for numerous 
changes in our drug policies.

We urge citizens to read the Global Commission report 
(www.globalcommissionondrugs.org), separate propaganda from science, 
and compare the harms of drug abuse to the even greater harms of 
prohibition. We ask everyone to support those who are working to 
amend Florida's unjust, costly, failed drug policies.

It has often been said that the definition of insanity is doing the 
same thing over and over and expecting different results. After 40 
years of failure, it's past time to bring some sanity to the problems 
of drug abuse.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom