Pubdate: Sun, 24 Jul 2011
Source: Minneapolis Star-Tribune (MN)
Website: http://www.startribune.com
Contact: http://www.startribunecompany.com/143
Author; Jason Lewis

DRUG WAR IS A FAILURE, SO LET'S EXPERIMENT

Without being rash, can we at least appraise the impact of prohibition?

Imagine a nightmare in which terrorists brutally murder 40,000 people 
in just five years. Now imagine that their base of operations is not 
across the globe, but directly adjacent to the United States. No 
doubt, hearing of such a thing, many of my conservative colleagues 
would be demanding a massive mobilization against the latest evils of 
Islamofacism.

But the real-life killers I have in mind, who revel in decapitating 
their victims (Al Capone's got nothing on these guys), aren't Muslim 
fanatics. They're narco-terrorists exploiting Mexico's failed war on drugs.

Most of the latest carnage appears to have been spearheaded by the 
Los Zetos gang, a group of former Mexican military men who 
simultaneously commit heinous acts of violence while building roads, 
schools and clinics for the impoverished. Sound familiar? It should 
- -- because whether you're talking about the Taliban or Mexican drug 
cartels, both employ similar tactics that result when governments 
grant them de facto monopoly status in the distribution of illicit 
drugs. And the sad irony is that the exorbitant black-market profits 
used to finance their operations are a result of prohibition itself.

So far, the international response to Mexico's agony has been 
feckless at best, dangerous at worst. In America, where the appetite 
for illegal substances shows no signs of abating, the violence is 
rapidly spilling into the Southwest. Yet Washington continues to 
subsidize Mexican President Felipe Calderon's quixotic crackdown 
while also concocting inscrutable schemes to track the villains. 
Operation Fast and Furious had the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, 
Firearms and Explosives sitting by as straw buyers bought AK-47s for 
rival gangs south of the border. Because no one in the Obama 
administration can come up with a suitable explanation, it now looks 
more like a cynical ploy to shift blame for the escalating violence 
in Mexico to U.S. gun dealers.

Regardless, America's entrenched drug warriors remain undeterred. 
They simply refuse to recognize that the state isn't very good at 
keeping adults from "abusing their freedom" by doing foolish things. 
Of course, decriminalizing drugs is no panacea, and shouldn't be seen 
as such. But it's worth recalling that the very same temperance 
movement that gave us the 18th Amendment and a nationwide ban on 
distilled spirits eventually led the effort to repeal it. At some 
point, we need to ask whether incarcerating first and asking 
questions second is the most effective response for nonviolent drug offenders.

Perhaps it's finally begun.

Nearly 80 years after the end of alcohol prohibition, the Global 
Commission on Drug Policy declared the war on drugs a failure with 
"devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the 
world." Most of the deleterious effects reside in urban America, 
where young people find it much more lucrative to deal than to learn 
a trade. For all of the problems associated with alcohol, and there 
are many, you simply don't see gangs shooting one another (and 
innocent bystanders) over a six-pack of Bud.

The commission, including such diverse notables as George Schultz, 
Paul Volcker and the former presidents of Mexico, Brazil and 
Columbia, notes that after 40 years of failing to stem the flow of 
narcotics, it's high time (pardon the pun) for a "paradigm shift" in 
global policy. The United States alone has spent $1 trillion on 
narcotics enforcement over the last 40 years, and Harvard economist 
Jeffrey Miron estimates the total budgetary impact to state and 
federal governments at around $88 billion per year, including lost tax revenue.

Even current U.S. drug czar Gil Kerlikowske admitted that 
interdiction "in the grand scheme ... has not been successful."

Not long before they died, conservative stalwarts William F. Buckley 
Jr. and Milton Friedman came to the conclusion that perhaps the most 
important public policy change the United States could undertake 
would be to end the second failed experiment in prohibition. And 
while no serious observer is advocating a rash repeal of drug laws 
overnight, U.S. Reps. Ron Paul and Barney Frank have introduced 
legislation that would allow the "laboratories of democracy" known as 
the states to develop their own rules on the use of marijuana within 
their borders.

That might be a good place to start.

Jason Lewis is a nationally syndicated talk-show host based in 
Minneapolis-St. Paul and is the author of "Power Divided is Power 
Checked: The Argument for States' Rights" from Bascom Hill 
Publishing. He can be heard locally from 5 to 8 p.m. weeknights on 
KTLK Radio, 100.3-FM.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart