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REARVIEW MIRROR - THE DRUG WAR IS A FAILURE

Any astute observer of the American sociocultural scene cannot ignore the increasing popular momentum for the realistic, practical acceptance of a broad range of non-violent human behavior, whether it be sexual preference or the decriminalization of the sale, possession and use of marijuana as a "recreational" narcotic, comparable to the use of alcohol.

A growing number of states are legalizing weed, and I reflect upon my own experience in another age when I zealously became involved in the drug issue.

Nowadays typically relegated to the back pages of the print media, and seldom even mentioned on TV/broadcast/cable news coverage, is an ongoing 30-year war that has cost our country more than Afghanistan, Iraq and all the other military battles of the past three decades combined.

It's America's so-called "war on drugs." One has a tough time finding any comprehensive accounting of the expense associated with the engagement.

In the late 1970s, I lost someone I cared deeply about to substance addiction.  I might have married her, but the dope kept interfering with our relationship.  Only in her early 30s, she suffered a life disabling aneurysm.  I felt profound guilt for not having acted to intervene in her self-destructive life-style.  My grief and sense of helplessness gave way to anger and determined vengeance for the loss of what had been so promising.  I wanted to bring down every drug pusher I could find.  As a private detective licensed in three states identified as critical in narcotic trafficking, I decided to test the premise that all the best actors are not in Hollywood.

So, when the Reagan-Bush Administration announced an all-out war on drugs in the early 1980's, the opportunity presented itself.  As a former military and CIA covert actions specialist, licensed commercial pilot, I volunteered and was signed up as an undercover contract operative with the Drug Enforcement Administration.  I made my first significant drug buy connections at the Lowell Inn, the Afton House and T.J.  Frosts in St.  Paul.

I didn't look or act like a cop, and because of my extensive background in the Caribbean, I was then assigned to the DEA's South Florida Task Force headed by Vice President George H.W.  Bush.  I was detailed to work under the supervision of the Joint Task Force office in Key West.  The Florida Keys, the Bahamas and Central America, areas familiar to me from my CIA and air charter flying days, became my beat.  From the fall of 1982, beginning my undercover work in the Twin Cities and Chicago, ending up in Ft.  Myers, FL in the fall of 1985, I served honorably and at high risk with DEA.  My cover prevented me from carrying a gun, and a Swiss Nagra miniature tape recorder was frequently taped to my abdomen when I went into the field.

I obviously managed to survive the experience.  My service is officially documented as is what this undertaking cost me personally.  With my life in disarray, I returned to the St.  Croix Valley in 1986 after testifying about my DEA experience to Congressional investigators in connection with the Iran-Contra scandal/probe that nearly brought down the Reagan White House.  Much has been written about this and is available on the Internet.

I come forth now, as a former frontline combatant in the drug war to publicly state, in good conscience, that our country's war on drugs is an exercise in futility.  I do this as I'm encouraged to see a number of states and nations maturely and pragmatically begin to modify their sociopolitical and cultural views on the drug issue, narcotics law enforcement and related criminal penalties.  The time for this is long overdue.

Public opinion is evolving to an acceptance of the fact that our present approach to the drug issue is impractical from every standpoint, and the law( s ) are fundamentally unenforceable.  The costs, policing, apprehension, criminal legal/judicial criminal process, incarceration, etc.  far outweigh any positive end result when balanced against our collective social interests.

The existing morality-based rationale in dealing with the matter only serves to perpetuate the problem and make it ever more lucrative drug trade in America.  Our prisons are crowded with petty sellers and users at great expense.  Has anything been achieved? We have made little progress over the years in the attempt to eradicate what is really an uncontrollable supply and demand phenomena.  Drug enforcement laws have created the same kind of artificial economy and gangland criminal subculture that was born of liquor prohibition in the 1920s.

The human animal has and will continue to do whatever it can to achieve temporary nirvana whether it be from intoxicants, drugs, sex, money or power.  Some cultures traditionally accept the use of narcotics as a means of achieving a higher level of intellectual and spiritual insight, and they survived.  Should we also outlaw the Internet on moral grounds because a few hedonistic narcissists post obscene photos and pictures of their body parts on cyberspace sites? What are we afraid of?

Let's get real.  If a certain segment of society wishes to waste itself on booze or dope, so be it.  With our national and state economics in free fall, let's figure out a way to decriminalize common demand now-illegal substances and relieve ourselves of fighting another war that cannot be won.  Put recreational narcotics in a controlled marketplace, as we have with alcohol, and tax the sale appropriately.  Penalize those who abuse the use and, if under the influence, threaten public safety.

Given the present economic dysfunction in America, and the apparent huge demand for drugs, we could probably wipe out those budget deficit problems in no time flat.