Pubdate: Sun, 21 Feb 2016
Source: Day, The (New London,CT)
Copyright: 2016 The Day Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.theday.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/293
Author: Daryl Justin Finizio
Note: Daryl Justin Finizio was the mayor of New London from 2011-2015.

IT'S TIME TO END THE FAILED WAR ON DRUGS

On April 3, 2013, the City of New London, and other municipalities 
throughout New London County were ground zero for a series of drug 
raids that the Department of Homeland Security called "the largest in 
State history."

This 15-month long operation originated in the New London Police 
Department but grew to involve the U.S. Attorney's office, the FBI, 
Homeland Security, the State Police, and the U.S. Secret Service. In 
all, over 100 arrests were made on state and federal charges.

As then-Mayor of New London, I praised law enforcement efforts and 
hoped this would be a new beginning in our region's fight against the 
often violent trade in illegal narcotics.

Three years later, however, heroin overdoses in our region are 
soaring and street violence associated with the drug trade continues 
almost uninterrupted. What, if anything, did we gain? Has the drug 
war merely become the new Prohibition, as ineffective as alcohol 
prohibition was nearly a century ago?

This episode in our recent regional history illustrates a fact that 
many in government and law enforcement have come to believe privately 
but few are willing to say publicly: it's time to end the war on drugs.

If a public policy initiative's success is judged on its ability to 
accomplish its stated goals, then there may be no policy in American 
history that is a greater failure than the drug war.

This failure isn't due to lack of enforcement. According to the U.S. 
Department of Justice, we arrest someone for drug-related offenses 
every 19 seconds, averaging over 1.6 million arrests per year. Nearly 
1 in 10 Americans are in prison, over 70 percent of whom are 
incarcerated for drug-related offenses. Our Democratic society, the 
"land of the free," is home to 25 percent of the world's prison population.

This policy failure is also not due to a lack of spending. According 
to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, drug use from 
1970-2010 has remained stable, while the costs of the war on drugs 
have increased from under $1 billion in 1970 to over $20 billion in 
2010, a total expenditure of over $1.5 trillion dollars.

These figures don't include the lost economic productivity and 
income-earning potential of people who are either currently 
incarcerated or handicapped by their criminal records. Nor do they 
include the increased costs of medical care and social services borne 
by the entire population.

Yet even as costs have soared, and prisons populations have swelled, 
violence on our streets has escalated. According to the Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention, in 2013, there were 11,208 
gun-related homicides in the United States. Over three-quarters of 
these were centered in urban areas often associated with young people 
involved in the drug trade. Our American urban streets are the most 
dangerous of any western nation.

It's time to try a different approach. Instead of treating drug 
addiction as a law enforcement problem, let's treat it as a public 
health problem. All narcotics should be decriminalized and drug users 
should face treatment, not prison time.

In taking this course, the United States would be following the lead 
of other nations such as Portugal, Spain and Italy, all of whom have 
seen significant declines in drug use, overdoses, and violence since 
voting to decriminalize narcotics.

However, U.S. politicians don't often respond to data, and rarely 
follow the lead of other nations. They're more concerned with poll 
numbers and re-election. Thus drug prohibition will continue so long 
as politicians believe it will help them win votes by looking moral, 
upstanding, and tough on crime, regardless of the actual policy outcomes.

As overdoses occur daily in our community and as each soul departs 
this earth at L+M Hospital, I hope the people will demand an end to 
this nonsensical law enforcement approach to drug use. Only if the 
people demand change will our elected officials finally change tactics.

Conversely, if we do not demand change, then whenever a bad batch of 
heroin comes through our region, we will attend vigils, we will 
organize forums, and law enforcement will round up the usual suspects 
until the crisis abates. Afterwards, we'll return to business as 
usual, and the death toll will grow ever higher.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom