Pubdate: Thu, 10 Oct 2002
Source: International Herald-Tribune (France)
Copyright: International Herald Tribune 2002
Contact:  http://www.iht.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/212
Author: Asa Hutchinson
Note: The writer is Director of the Drug Enforcement Administration. He 
contributed this comment to the Washington Post.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm (Ecstasy)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?194 (Hutchinson, Asa)

LEGALIZATION OF DRUGS JUST DOESN'T WORK

On a recent summer tour through south London, I saw the future of drug 
legalization. A young couple injected heroin inside the filthy ruins of an 
abandoned building. In this working-class neighborhood, residents weave in 
and out of crowded sidewalks, trying to avoid making eye contact with 
dealers who openly push heroin, marijuana and crack.

Scotland Yard aggressively targets international drug traffickers, and I 
applaud its strong overall anti-drug policy. But last year, a local police 
commander initiated a pilot program in which people caught possessing 
marijuana were warned rather than arrested. Often, they were just ignored. 
In news reports and my interviews, residents criticized the program for 
bringing more drug dealers, more petty criminals and more drug use.

The one-year Lambeth pilot ended Aug. 1, but Britain has announced it will 
relax the country's marijuana laws. That move has given fuel to those in 
the United States who believe America should follow suit. Some have called 
for the legalization of marijuana. People could buy dope over the counter 
as they do in Amsterdam.

What these legalization advocates do not talk about are the disturbing 
problems that people in Lambeth lived with every day. They ignore the sad 
misery of young people addicted to drugs. They ignore the serious problems 
that countries such as the Netherlands are experiencing - problems that are 
leading them to reconsider their own liberal drug laws.

The culture of drug use and acceptance in the Netherlands has played a role 
in that country becoming the world's top producer of Ecstasy. It's 
interesting that, in a 2001 study, the British Home Office found that 
violent crime and property crime increased in the late 1990s in every 
wealthy country except the United States. No doubt effective drug 
enforcement had a part in declining crime in the United States.

Maybe it's time Europeans looked to America's drug policy as their model. 
The U.S. approach - tough drug laws coupled with effective education 
programs and compassionate treatment - is having success. Overall drug use 
is down by more than a third since the late 1970s. That's 9.5 million fewer 
people using illegal drugs. Cocaine use is down by an astounding 70 percent 
in the past 15 years.

America has still not done enough. Drugs are still readily available, and a 
new survey shows that American kids are increasingly using drugs such as 
Ecstasy. As long as there is despair, poverty and frustration, as long as 
there is teenage rebellion, there will be problems with drugs. But we must 
also keep some perspective about U.S. drug use. Less than 5 percent of the 
population uses illegal drugs. That's 16 million regular users of all 
illegal drugs, compared with 66 million tobacco users and 109 million 
alcohol users.

Emerging drug threats such as Ecstasy and methamphetamine are going to 
require even more resolve and innovation. We do have new ideas: from drug 
courts to community coalitions; from more investment in education to more 
effective treatment; from drug testing in the workplace to drug counselors 
in schools. These are ideas that work.

What doesn't work is legalization. It's a well-kept secret that America 
tried it before. In 1975, Alaska's Supreme Court held that under that 
state's constitution, an adult could possess marijuana for personal 
consumption at home.

The court's ruling became a green light for marijuana use. A 1988 
University of Alaska survey showed that the state's teenagers used 
marijuana at a rate more than twice the national average for their age 
group. Fed up with this dangerous experiment, Alaska's residents voted in 
1990 to recriminalize the possession of marijuana. But 15 years of 
legalization left its mark - increased drug use by a generation of youths.

Legalizing drugs is simply a surrender. It's giving up on the hope of a 
drug-free future for our next generation. It's writing off those still in 
the grip of addiction and despair. Isn't every life worth fighting for?
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager