Pubdate: Tue, 19 Jun 2012
Source: Traverse City Record-Eagle (MI)
Copyright: 2012 The Traverse City Record-Eagle
Contact: http://www.record-eagle.com/opinion/local_story_128175513.html
Website: http://www.record-eagle.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1336
Author: William A. Collins
Note: OtherWords columnist William A. Collins is a former state 
representative, and a former mayor of Norwalk, Connecticut; on the 
web at: otherwords.org.

WAR ON DRUGS IS DUMBEST OF THEM ALL

Prison owners Make a lot, By putting kids In jail for pot.

America recently commemorated the 40th year of its "War on Drugs." 
Celebrations were muted because of the war's dismal failure. How many 
candles are appropriate for shooting yourself in the foot? 
Congratulatory cards from sister nations were sparse, since many are 
urging us to abandon what was a stupid idea in the first place. Gee, 
thanks, Richard Nixon.

It's even stupider now. The FBI reports 750,000 annual arrests for 
marijuana possession. How inane is that? Now we have cleverly imposed 
on each of those malefactors a criminal record, thus making it harder 
for them to ever get a job. Who was the genius who thought that one 
up? Maybe it was those tireless leaders who seek to keep African 
Americans and Latinos "in their place." Because of racial profiling 
by police, that place is often jail.

And it's not as though we're getting bad advice from abroad. Europe 
may be flunking Economics 101, but it's smarter about drugs. In 
Portugal, where just about all recreational drugs are legal, crime is 
down and so is use. Treatment, though, is hot, as it is elsewhere on 
the continent.

A growing number of Latin American leaders now support drug 
legalization too, especially in the United States. They are sick and 
tired of the crime and violence their nations suffer from smugglers 
who use their territory as conduits to the North. ...

And America already holds the advantage of painful past experience. 
We went through this exercise once before, with Prohibition. The fear 
of alcohol clouded our minds so much that we actually passed a 
constitutional amendment prohibiting it. ...

This time around there is blessedly no amendment, but something even 
worse: money. The "war" has germinated a whole new industry - the 
prison-industrial complex. It hires lobbyists galore and makes 
formidable campaign contributions. Hence it's no accident that our 
nation sports the world's largest prison population.

Not only do these needlessly incarcerated inmates generate huge 
profits for prison investors, they support police unions, guard 
unions, prosecutors, lawyers, marshals, drivers, and whole remote 
communities. Liquor and pharmaceutical companies also contribute 
handsomely to make sure all those competing narcotic products remain 
illegal. ...

We like to think of ourselves as a nation where cooler heads prevail, 
but with drugs even our president leads us into lunacy.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom