Pubdate: Thu, 08 Feb 2001
Source: Ft. Worth Star-Telegram (TX)
Copyright: 2001 Star-Telegram, Fort Worth, Texas
Contact:  400 W. Seventh Street, Fort Worth, Texas 76102
Website: http://www.star-telegram.com/
Forum: http://www.star-telegram.com/comm/forums/
Author:  Don Erler
Note: Don Erler of Hurst is president of General Building Maintenance in
Fort Worth.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/traffic.htm (Traffic)

DRUGS: IT'S TIME FOR A DIFFERENT KIND OF STOP SIGN

'Traffic' is terrific, if only because the popular movie dramatizes and 
makes compelling what prose and statistics often fail to convey: It's high 
time to declare a cease-fire in the war on drugs.

Like any conflict, this one has casualties. Michael Douglas' character in 
the film, portrayed as our drug czar, comes to see that the war can injure 
even those whom we love the most: our families.

The nonfictional president of the National Association of Criminal Defense 
Lawyers (NACDL), Houston attorney Edward Mallett, was almost as perceptive 
three days before the Nov. 7 election: "Both of our presidential candidates 
committed 'youthful indiscretions' in their day. Would they, or we, be 
better off if they had been sent to prison, like so many blacks and Latinos 
are these days?"

His question takes on added weight during Black History Month.

The NACDL's board of directors was unanimous in calling for an end to our 
latest attempt at Prohibition. At the risk of causing readers' eyes to 
glaze over, I summarize their rationale:

* With 5 percent of the world's population, the United States houses 25 
percent of our planet's prison population.

* Nearly a quarter of America's 2 million prisoners are serving time for 
drug offenses.

* Latinos, at 12 percent of the population, were defendants in 42 percent 
of federal drug prosecutions.

* African-Americans, at 13 percent of the population, make up 63 percent of 
drug offenders sentenced to state prison.

* There is no discernible causal connection between harsh sentencing laws 
and decreases in illegal drug use.

Therefore, the NACDL called for repealing laws against drug possession, use 
and delivery; for ceasing actions designed to eradicate the plants used to 
make the most popular recreational drugs; and for developing a plan to tax 
and regulate these controlled substances, setting aside some revenue for 
drug education, research into addiction, and increasingly effective 
treatment procedures.

Jacob Sullum, a senior editor at 'Reason' magazine, has cited research 
showing that in 1902, when cocaine was legal, only 0.26 percent of the 
population was addicted. He has written that "almost no one had trouble 
abstaining from cocaine or using it in moderation."

Sullum also referred to the 1998 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, 
which found that of the 10.6 percent of respondents who had tried cocaine 
(including crack), only 3 percent had used it weekly or more often. In 
fact, there are far more drinkers who report heavy alcohol use than cocaine 
users who report similar dependence. And the death rate is almost 25 times 
higher for alcohol than for cocaine abusers.

I enjoyed lunch last week with the executive director of a large 
not-for-profit agency in Tarrant County. He told me that one of the best 
workers he had ever employed was dismissed because of a negative result on 
a random drug test. He joked that it prompted him "to wonder whether we 
should offer cocaine to all of our . . . workers."

State laws are coming to terms with our failed approach to drugs. 
California and Arizona voters have overwhelmingly passed initiatives to 
require treatment, not prison, for first- and second-time drug offenders. 
And nine states (plus the District of Columbia) now allow marijuana to be 
made available for medical purposes.

Prohibition has failed again. Drugs are more plentiful and less expensive 
than they were even two decades ago. While demand remains steady, our 
borders are more porous than ever.

Illegality produces high profitability, which generates criminal 
syndicates, the outright purchase of police and judges, and huge numbers of 
abusers who get punished for (instead of helped with) their problems.

Check out 'Traffic.' It's an eye-opening portrait of the war that we can't win.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager