Pubdate: Mon, 03 Jun 2002
Source: Denver Rocky Mountain News (CO)
Copyright: 2002, Denver Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.rockymountainnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/371
Author: Richard Stacy, Special to the News
Note: Richard Stacy spent 12 years as U.S. Attorney for the District of 
Wyoming during which time he prosecuted and supervised the prosecution of 
hundreds of drug dealers and was a member of a group that helped formulate 
the War on Drugs. He also served five years as a U.S. administrative law 
judge. He lives in Littleton.

SPEAKOUT: WAR ON DRUGS SHOULD NOT BE ABANDONED

Senior U.S. District Court Judge John Kane ("America in a fix," April 27) 
has joined the ranks of those calling for an end to the war against drugs.

The War on Drugs is not an ill-considered flash in the pan. On the contrary 
it represents the best efforts of the last seven presidents, as well as 
overwhelming bipartisan majorities of Congress over an extended period of time.

Like others in the drug legalization camp, Kane points out that despite 
years of drug enforcement efforts and the expenditure of billions of 
dollars, illicit drugs still constitute a major problem in America. He 
concludes that the drug war is a total failure and that "the states should 
regulate sales and decide which activities are criminal and which drugs if 
any should be prohibited."

He assumes that these actions would put an end to the massive social 
problems related to drug abuse. Yet, any prison warden will tell you that 
alcohol lands more people in jail than all other drugs combined. The 
legalization of booze that came with the end of Prohibition has not 
prevented the violent crime, child abuse, domestic violence, broken 
families or the other horrendous social costs attributable to the abuse of 
alcohol. Decriminalization of currently illegal drugs can only dramatically 
multiply these problems.

If we surrender in the war against drugs and remove the stigma of using 
Ecstasy, crack cocaine and methamphetamine, millions of nonusing Americans 
will begin to use those drugs.

I would like Kane to ponder some questions: If drugs are legalized, for 
whom will they be legalized? Everyone, or just those over 10, or 16 -- or 
18? If only for those over 18, would we not still have a vast illegal drug 
trade for those under 18?

Methamphetamine and crack cocaine can produce temporary psychosis in sane 
people. Otherwise normal people become paranoid, and capable of committing 
violent crimes under their influence. Kane might want to be on C-470 
surrounded by drivers who just came from Joe's Drug Emporium, but not me. 
Would you want your surgeon to have just shot up with a little heroin or 
crank before he fixes that ski knee? How about the guy at the controls of 
the 737 you are riding in, or your child's school bus driver?

How would legalization work? Would we have drug boutiques springing up in 
every strip mall along the Front Range a la Starbucks? Perhaps you could 
stop in on your way home from work and smoke a little crack -- maybe shoot 
up some crank while you're at it.

I do not mean to imply that all is well with the War on Drugs. Certainly we 
should spend more resources on the demand side of the problem. More needs 
to be devoted to educating young people about the dangers of drugs, and 
more should be spent on mandatory rehabilitation and treatment for addicts. 
In the long run, only by reducing the demand for drugs can we begin to 
alleviate the social problems that flow from substance abuse.

The work on the supply side, however, must not be abandoned. To capitulate 
in the War on Drugs, at either the state or national level, would be a 
tragic mistake.

Remember the death of Boulder teen Brittney Chambers awhile back? Her death 
should have given us all pause to reflect on the effect of illegal drug use 
in our society. Chambers died of an overdose of Ecstasy, the current fad 
drug among America's young people.

We must ask ourselves if her parents would feel any better if she had died 
as a result of overdosing on legal Ecstasy. I think not.

In my view, decriminalization would greatly multiply the number of lives 
wasted and destroyed by drug use. I dare Kane, or anyone else, to prove 
otherwise.
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MAP posted-by: Beth