Pubdate: Sun, 12 Apr 2009
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 2009 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/IuiAC7IZ
Website: http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/82
Author: Brian O'Dea
Note: Brian O'Dea, one of the biggest marijuana smugglers in U.S. 
history, is now a film and television producer in Toronto. He is the 
author of "High: Confessions of an International Drug Smuggler," due 
out in May.

AN EX-DRUG SMUGGLER'S PERSPECTIVE

I was one of the "masterminds" behind the importation and sale of 
approximately 75 tons of pot from Southeast Asia to the U.S. in 1986 
and 1987. It was the culmination of a 20-year career as a drug 
smuggler, a deal that netted in excess of $180 million wholesale. And 
the only thing the government got out of those drug hauls was the 
sales tax from the cash my gang spent. There were, of course, some 
financial forfeitures once my gang was finally rounded up some years 
later. However, had rational minds prevailed over the past 70-plus 
years, the U.S. government would have reaped huge benefits from 
organizations like ours.

But no. Rather than accept the fact that some 30 million Americans 
cannot possibly be criminals, our society has squandered almost a 
trillion dollars in a futile effort to stop drug use.

We're hearing a lot about drug-related violence in Mexico these days. 
But listening to the news recently, I heard of a police sweep in 
Toronto-where I live some months out of the year. The operation 
involved more than 1,000 police officers and netted, among other 
things, a vast quantity of firearms, including loaded AK-47s, 
sawed-off shotguns and 34 handguns, none of which were obtained 
legally. These weapons came from the United States and were smuggled 
north. Here is how it works (I know firsthand): Canadian gangs grow 
pot in apartment buildings, putting everyone who lives there in 
danger. Once harvested, the pot is traded to U.S. gangs for cocaine 
and guns. America's arcane drug laws provide the currency for these 
gangs to exist.

South of the border, it's even worse. Some analysts say Mexico is on 
the slipperiest of slopes toward becoming a failed state, and illegal 
drugs are playing a huge part. Drug traffickers are able to operate 
only because they have currency. Take away the currency, you take 
away the drug traffickers.

In my days in that business, guns were nowhere to be found. Now, 
however, I cannot imagine anyone being in the trade without a gun. It 
has to stop, but how?

Steve Lopez, a Los Angeles Times columnist, recently wrote, "I'm 
sitting in Costa Mesa with a silver-haired gent who once ran for 
Congress as a Republican and used to lock up drug dealers as a 
federal prosecutor, a man who served as an Orange County [California] 
judge for 25 years. And what are we talking about? He's begging me to 
tell you we need to legalize drugs in America."

A judge is saying this. Say it ain't true, baby, but it is. And he's 
not the only one saying it. Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper 
(in whose jurisdiction I was sentenced to 10 years in prison) says 
the same thing. That's why he is involved with Law Enforcement 
Against Prohibition, a group of former and current police officers, 
government agents and other law-enforcement agents who oppose the war on drugs.

According to LEAP, "After nearly four decades of fueling the U.S. 
policy of a war on drugs with over a trillion tax dollars and 37 
million arrests for non-violent drug offenses, our confined 
population has quadrupled, making building prisons the fastest 
growing industry in the United States." More than 2.3 million U.S. 
citizens are in jail, and every year we arrest 1.9 million more, 
guaranteeing prisons will be busting at their seams. Every year, the 
war on drugs will cost U.S. taxpayers another $69 billion.

While the U.S. has only 5 percent of the world's population, it has 
25 percent of the world's known prison population. This startling 
number is due to one major factor: our arcane drug laws. It is time 
we stopped treating a medical condition with law enforcement.

Ultimately, does the fact that people smoke pot make them criminals? 
Is the struggling heroin addict a criminal? If he is, it is only 
because we are not treating the root of the problem.

It is time to legalize marijuana. The tax revenue generated could 
then be used to help addicts. I work with these folks every day, in 
one way or another, and not one of them wants to live the way they 
do, but they don't know how to stop. They need help, not punishment.

Back in the 1920s, America saw one of the most violent organized 
criminal elements in history. Who can forget the tommy guns, the 
blood on the street and names like Luciano and Capone? Well, they 
exist today, it's just that the names have been changed to Escobar 
and Huerta Rios. As LEAP so succinctly puts it: Alcohol prohibition, 
drug prohibition, same problem, same solution.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake