Pubdate: Mon, 30 Dec 2013
Source: Gainesville Sun, The (FL)
Copyright: 2013 The Gainesville Sun
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/yMmn4Ifw
Website: http://www.gainesville.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/163
Author: Hal Cohen
Note: Hal Cohen was a sitting judge in Palm Beach County, elected in 
1976 and retired in 2004. Before that he was a prosecuting attorney. 
He moved to High Springs after his retirement and resides there with 
his wife and two dogs.

LEGALIZE DRUGS AND SPEND SAVINGS ON TREATMENT, EDUCATION

Ashley Reeb's intelligent and sensible Dec. 22 column, "Long sentences
fail to address causes of drug abuse," together with The Sun's recent
editorial on mandatory minimum sentences have inspired me to suggest a
radical but long-needed solution to the problem of drug crimes and
mandatory, obscene and disproportionate sentencing in this state and
nationally.

I write from personal experience -- over 35 years in the justice
system as a former prosecutor, former county judge and former circuit
court judge who has now been retired since 2004. My background is not
that of a "bleeding heart." I have actually personally sentenced
people to death and imposed life sentences where appropriate.

However, I have come to the conclusion that the so-called "War on
Drugs" is a mammoth failure. In all my years on the bench, I could
count on one hand the number of serious or high-level drug dealers
ever brought before me.

The endless parade of low-level addicts and street people that have
come before me - including disproportionately high numbers of
minorities - are statistics used to justify swollen law enforcement
and prison budgets. You may read about "drug sweeps." By and large
these are low-level drug users trying to feed their habits.

President Eisenhower warned of a "military industrial complex" when he
retired. I have now seen a law enforcement/prison industrial complex
develop and grow wild. The more arrests, no matter how petty, and the
longer the sentences, no matter how unfair, feed the law
enforcement/prison complex endlessly. It has cost taxpayers not
billions, but trillions of dollars since the "War on Drugs" began in
the 1980s.

And to what end? Has drug addiction and use been stopped? We have
spent -- and continue to spend - taxpayer dollars on an endless and
hopeless cause to fill the pockets of an "industry" that deludes the
public into thinking something is being accomplished when, in fact,
the only thing being accomplished is locking up people for unseemly
long sentences to profit what has now become a private business to a
great extent - prisons.

Judges at every level of the justice system, federal and state, have
been sickened by being required to impose unfair and despicable
sentences ruining the lives of thousands of young people and their
families.

My solution: Drugs -- all drugs - should be decriminalized or
legalized. They should be purchased legally and taxed like cigarettes
- -- perhaps the most addictive and damaging drug of all.

The revenue saved from the idiotic "War on Drugs" and prisons used to
support it, taken together with the tax revenues received from the
sale of drugs, would probably balance the budget of all the states.
Funds diverted from this law enforcement extravaganza should be used
for treatment and education.

The insane and dangerous drug wars fought by the drug cartels would
cease. In much the same way that eliminating Prohibition in the 1930s
put an end to the bootleg battles of that era, decriminalizing or
legalizing drugs would end these current-day drug wars.

Many of these illegal substances were once very legal in this country.
They could be purchased in a local pharmacy. I am amazed to see some
of the old sales brochures of that era.

We have been brainwashed into a spending frenzy to "protect our
children." We have failed. Our children can purchase illegal drugs on
the street of almost any town in America - urban, suburban or rural.

It is time for a radical change if our current politicians have the
guts to admit what has been going on for the past decades is a charade
and do what makes perfect sense to anyone who knows what is going on
in the real world.  
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D