Pubdate: Mon, 13 Sep 1999 Source: Des Moines Register (IA) Copyright: 1999, The Des Moines Register. Contact: http://www.dmregister.com/ Author: Editorial A NEW DIALOGUE ON DRUGS How many lives have been wasted not only by drugs but by laws that make users criminals? Texas Gov. George W. Bush presumably used illegal drugs sometime in his past. If he did, he and the nation are fortunate. He was not arrested. He was not sent to prison. He was not marked for life with a criminal record. He became an outstanding citizen, quite possibly the next president of the United States. How different things might have been if he had been caught and arrested. What a waste it would have been. The Bush example and others like it should prompt Americans to ask some soulsearching questions. How many other young experimenters with drugs might have straightened up and gone on to productive lives had they not been caught up in the criminaljustice system? How many lives have been ruined not only by drugs but by laws that make criminals out of drug users and smalltime dealers? How many new prisons wouldn't be needed if the nation hadn't chosen to define drug use as a crime? One of the few elected officials asking questions like these is the Republican governor of New Mexico, Gary E. Johnson. He has acknowledged smoking marijuana in college and trying cocaine a few times. Now 46, Johnson is a fitness fanatic and the first governor of New Mexico to have been elected to two consecutive fouryear terms. He is calling for the nation to consider alternatives to the war on drugs. In a recent interview with The New York Times, Johnson argued that the war on drugs is a costly failure and that the hundreds of billions in resources spent in a futile battle could be better spent on education and other priorities. He said an overemphasis on prosecution and incarceration have overwhelmed courts and prisons, and the federal government needs to consider decriminalization. Governor Johnson is not the first prominent American to suggest such a course, but he is probably the highestranking elected official to call for a truce in the war on drugs. His position is basically that of the Libertarian Party, which sees drug use as an essentially victimless crime. Among other arguments made by libertarians is that the obsessive war on drugs actually makes the streets less safe, because dangerous criminals are being released from prison to make room for drug offenders. Advocates for decriminalization also argue that the war on drugs has eroded civil liberties as police agencies have been granted vast new powers to ferret out dealers and confiscate property. In any war, liberties are curtailed. If adults were the only people involved with drugs, it might be easy to accept the decriminalization argument. If an adult is dumb enough to choose to scramble his or her brains with chemicals, why should that stupidity be a crime? And why should taxpayers be expected to pay for that person's prosecution and incarceration? But it's not just adults. What drives the war on drugs is the fear that children will be drawn into addiction and related crime. It is this fear that politicians respond to when they enact ever tougher drug laws with ever more severe penalties. It is not an unreasonable fear. Governor Johnson and others are right that it is time for a national dialogue on alternatives to the war on drugs. There is a plausible case to be made that the cost in both monetary and human terms of the war exceeds its benefits. But what about the children? Until the advocates of decriminalization can show how children would be protected, the dialogue won't proceed very far. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea