Pubdate: Tue, 22 Jun 2010
Source: Charleston Gazette (WV)
Copyright: 2010 Charleston Gazette
Contact:  http://www.wvgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/77

DRUG WAR HAS BEEN EXPENSIVE FAILURE

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Since President Richard Nixon  launched the "war
on drugs" four decades ago, U.S.  taxpayers have poured $1 trillion
into the crusade that  is largely a flop.

Narcotics are more rampant in America now than ever.  Numerous drug
murders and robberies happen daily. U.S.  prisons and jails are
bursting with 2.5 million  inmates, mostly drug-related. America has
the world's  worst lockup rate, wrecking millions of families at
horrible public cost. A recent roadside survey found  that one-sixth
of drivers tested positive for dope.  Prescription pills are a rising
menace.

Drug gangs in Mexico have killed a reported 28,000  people in the past
five years, battling for control of  the lucrative northbound trade.
Jamaica is under siege  because a narcotics kingpin wanted for
supplying  America is barricaded in a slum.

Asked about the U.S. war on drugs, President Obama's  narcotics czar, Gil 
Kerlikowske, told The Associated  Press: "In the grand scheme, it has not 
been  successful. Forty years later, the concern about drugs  and drug 
problems is, if anything, magnified,  intensified."

The bottom line: Prohibition causes as many evils as it  cures.
America learned that dismal lesson in the 1920s  when the historic ban
on alcohol spawned organized  crime, illicit "speakeasies," bribery of
law officers,  and sundry ills. The result was so ugly that
Prohibition was repealed. Crime related to bootlegging  faded.

Finally, momentum is building to downgrade the war on  drugs.
Californians will vote this fall on a proposal  to legalize marijuana
sales for anyone over 21. Here's  another example:

When alcohol was banned in the '20s, a legal loophole  let drugstores
sell "medicinal" liquor -- and thousands  of outlets flowered. Today,
medicinal marijuana has  been legalized by 14 states, and more are
hopping on  the bandwagon. "Pot shops" are popping. When government
imposes taboos, crafty people outwit taboo-enforcers.

President Obama also is shifting the U.S. focus. Last  month, he
launched a "balanced" National Drug Control  Strategy, which
spotlights prevention and treatment as  well as police raids. We hope
this change reduces  hostilities in the "war."

Criminalizing alcohol created a class of alcohol  criminals -- who
vanished after alcohol became legal.  Criminalizing drugs makes
millions of Americans  criminals.

In a decade or so, pot probably will be legal in most  of the United
States. Looking back, people will wonder  why Americans in 2010 were
jailed for it.

We've always felt it's absurd for America to throw  people in prison
for marijuana, while legalizing  tobacco and booze, which do more
harm. Prohibition of  alcohol was a fiasco. Prohibition of dope isn't
much  better. 
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