Pubdate: Mon, 06 Oct 2014
Source: Buffalo News (NY)
Copyright: 2014 The Buffalo News
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/GXIzebQL
Website: http://www.buffalonews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/61
Author: Froma Harrop, Creators Syndicate
Page: A9

BEYOND POT: LEGALIZE ALL DRUGS

Thirty years ago, a college kid in Kentucky was caught growing 
marijuana plants in his closet. That turned him into a convicted 
felon, and though he's been on the right side of the law ever since, 
he still can't vote. On any job application, he must check the box 
next to "Have you ever been convicted of a felony?"

All this misery for growing a plant whose leaves the past three 
presidents admit having smoked.

We know this story because Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky keeps telling 
it. That a Southern Republican probably running for president is 
condemning such prosecutions as unfair speaks volumes on the 
collapsing support for the war on marijuana  part of the larger war on drugs.

Two states, Colorado and Washington, have already legalized recreational pot.

So what do we do about the rest of the war  the war on heroin, 
cocaine, methamphetamine and the other nastier stuff? The answer is 
legalize them, too.

"What is the benefit, what have we derived from this drug war that 
even begins to offset the horrors we inflict on ourselves via this 
policy?" asks Dean Becker, a legalization advocate. He is editor of 
"To End the War on Drugs," a collection of politically diverse views 
published by Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy.

Over the past 40 years, the war has put more than 45 million 
Americans under arrest and cost taxpayers $1 trillion. And what do we 
have to show for it? Drugs on the street are cheaper, more powerful 
and more abundant than ever.

The war has fueled gang wars in our cities and enriched the criminal 
foreign cartels. It has created a vile class system, turning millions 
of poor and working-class Americans into felons while largely turning 
a blind eye toward users of the same drugs in suburban cul-de-sacs. 
And again, it's all been for naught. As conservative economist Milton 
Friedman once put it, "if you look at the drug war from a purely 
economic point of view, the role of the government is to protect the 
drug cartel." Wouldn't legalizing all drugs set off a new explosion 
of drug use? Good question. Undoubtedly, some would try drugs for the 
first time. But regulating the sale could limit the problems. 
Portugal decriminalized drugs in 2000 and saw little rise in use.

Becker is not a big fan of small steps in easing the drug laws, 
though he thinks that's better than nothing. He wants full legalization.

Just decriminalizing drugs  that is, not arresting people possessing 
them but keeping their sale illegal  does not take criminals out of 
the business. And it stands in the way of regulating the drug-making 
now done by untrained chemists in primitive labs. Furthermore, 
illegal businesses don't get taxed.

Prohibition of the 1920s was "decrim." Alcoholic beverages couldn't 
be legally sold, but one could drink them at home. A lot of good that did.

Make drugs legal; regulate them; tax them. The final destination for 
the war on drugs should be oblivion, the sooner the better.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom