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Founder
Drug Policies Don't Work. Tracking down drug dealers, prosecuting them and putting them in jail costs U.S. taxpayers tens of billions of dollars every year. Some people believe drug use should be decriminalized, especially for marijuana. Smoking marijuana may be less harmful than drinking beer, wine or liquor.
Norm Stamper, former police chief in Seattle, takes the argument a big step further in his Oct. 16 column in the Los Angeles Times. "I don't favor decriminalization. I favor legalization, and not just of pot but of all drugs, including heroin, cocaine, meth, psychotropics, mushrooms and ***. ...
"I've never understood why adults shouldn't enjoy the same right to use verboten drugs as they have to suck on a Marlboro or knock back a scotch and water."
Stamper does not advocate drug use. But he criticizes the "multiple lunacies" of the "war on drugs" backed vigorously by Republicans and Democrats. Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush all delivered "sanctimonious sermons," he says, and squandered huge sums of taxpayer money fighting drugs.
President George W. Bush is even more extreme. He opposes medical marijuana use by dying cancer and AIDS patients.
The results have not been brilliant:
Drug convictions are the major force driving prison population, up from 139 out of every 100,000 people in 1980 to 482 out of every 100,000 people in 2003. In 1980, 580,900 Americans got arrested on drug charges. In 2003, 1,678,200 did.
Drug enforcement costs $69 billion a year.
High-priced illegal drugs help drug dealers get rich. High prices also lead to robberies, shootings and killings. Victims include drug users, drug dealers, police officers and innocent bystanders.
And it all happens right here in Charleston. Recently, a growing danger comes from meth labs that explode in garages, basements and apartment complexes.
Would regulated drug legalization lead to increased drug use? "We'd see modest increases in use, negligible increases in abuse," Stamper believes.
But in all likelihood, legalization would also lead to major reductions in predatory street crimes. It would stop most meth lab explosions. Perhaps the nation would see a drop in drug use if money were spent instead on public health efforts and helping addicts to clean themselves up.
Stamper's proposals and predictions are undoubtedly too controversial for political leaders to consider and too controversial for most newspapers to endorse. But whether he is right or wrong, whether drug legalization is a good or a bad idea, today's policies are not working.
In addition to moralists who condemn the evils of drugs, whole communities now thrive on new prisons.
In his recent book "Against Leviathan," author Robert Higgs predicts: "With politicians, unions and construction firms all sleeping in the same bed, the 'lock'em up' policy seems likely to remain ensconced indefinitely."
Perhaps Stamper's solution is too bold. But he gives policy makers much to think about.
Source: Charleston Gazette (WV)
Copyright: 2005 Charleston Gazette
Contact: letters@wvgazette.com
Website: wvgazettemail.com | A Pulitzer Prize Winning Newspaper
Norm Stamper, former police chief in Seattle, takes the argument a big step further in his Oct. 16 column in the Los Angeles Times. "I don't favor decriminalization. I favor legalization, and not just of pot but of all drugs, including heroin, cocaine, meth, psychotropics, mushrooms and ***. ...
"I've never understood why adults shouldn't enjoy the same right to use verboten drugs as they have to suck on a Marlboro or knock back a scotch and water."
Stamper does not advocate drug use. But he criticizes the "multiple lunacies" of the "war on drugs" backed vigorously by Republicans and Democrats. Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush all delivered "sanctimonious sermons," he says, and squandered huge sums of taxpayer money fighting drugs.
President George W. Bush is even more extreme. He opposes medical marijuana use by dying cancer and AIDS patients.
The results have not been brilliant:
Drug convictions are the major force driving prison population, up from 139 out of every 100,000 people in 1980 to 482 out of every 100,000 people in 2003. In 1980, 580,900 Americans got arrested on drug charges. In 2003, 1,678,200 did.
Drug enforcement costs $69 billion a year.
High-priced illegal drugs help drug dealers get rich. High prices also lead to robberies, shootings and killings. Victims include drug users, drug dealers, police officers and innocent bystanders.
And it all happens right here in Charleston. Recently, a growing danger comes from meth labs that explode in garages, basements and apartment complexes.
Would regulated drug legalization lead to increased drug use? "We'd see modest increases in use, negligible increases in abuse," Stamper believes.
But in all likelihood, legalization would also lead to major reductions in predatory street crimes. It would stop most meth lab explosions. Perhaps the nation would see a drop in drug use if money were spent instead on public health efforts and helping addicts to clean themselves up.
Stamper's proposals and predictions are undoubtedly too controversial for political leaders to consider and too controversial for most newspapers to endorse. But whether he is right or wrong, whether drug legalization is a good or a bad idea, today's policies are not working.
In addition to moralists who condemn the evils of drugs, whole communities now thrive on new prisons.
In his recent book "Against Leviathan," author Robert Higgs predicts: "With politicians, unions and construction firms all sleeping in the same bed, the 'lock'em up' policy seems likely to remain ensconced indefinitely."
Perhaps Stamper's solution is too bold. But he gives policy makers much to think about.
Source: Charleston Gazette (WV)
Copyright: 2005 Charleston Gazette
Contact: letters@wvgazette.com
Website: wvgazettemail.com | A Pulitzer Prize Winning Newspaper
