Pubdate: Mon, 10 Dec 2001
Source: Denver Rocky Mountain News (CO)
Copyright: 2001, Denver Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.rockymountainnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/371
Author: Deborah Frazier

SHERIFF: U.S. DRUG POLICY A FAILURE

'We Need To Admit That,' San Miguel Lawman Says

San Miguel County Sheriff Bill Masters is taking his war against drugs on 
the road.

"America's drug policy is a failure. We need to admit that and switch to a 
system of careful control," Masters said.

Masters, a Republican turned Libertarian, was elected in 1979 in a county 
that includes Telluride.

"The plan is not to have heroin stores everywhere, but a system where 
people can clearly see all the drugs and know they don't need them," he said.

"The police and the politicians need to admit they've failed."

That's also the message in his book, Drug War Addiction: Notes From the 
Front Lines of America's No. 1 Policy Disaster, published by Accurate Press 
of St. Louis and due out this month.

The drug war, which reportedly costs every citizen $200 a year, has failed 
to curb gang warfare, drug-related murders and robberies, although half the 
inmates in federal prison are serving terms for drug offenses, he said.

"We are a drug culture. It's encouraged by ads for Prozac, Ritalin and 
Viagra," said Masters, who tries to avoid all drugs, but occasionally takes 
ibuprofen.

"I know that when I take something, it affects me."

Some drugs should be available, he said.

"Take medical marijuana. You have to be deathly ill from chemotherapy, 
suffering from cancer and lying on the bathroom floor vomiting and crying," 
he said.

"How can we be so cruel?"

For all the millions of dollars spent and thousands of people jailed, the 
same percentage of the population -- 1 percent -- is addicted to heroin and 
morphine today as were in 1900, Masters said.

"If people like drug killings, meth labs, overdoses, police corruption and 
drug-related crimes, then we have the perfect drug policy," he said.

"Thirty years ago, we had a little tiny drug problem.

"Now the quantity and quality are better, and it's all over the place."

At his talks on the subject in western Colorado, the public has been 
supportive, Masters said.

"I've had people in their 80s drive hundreds of miles to my office after 
they heard me speak just to tell me they agree," Masters said.
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