Pubdate: Mon, 13 Jun 2011
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution (GA)
Copyright: 2011 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Contact: http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/letters/sendletter.html
Website: http://www.ajc.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/28
Author: Bob Barr

"WAR ON DRUGS" HIT BY WORLD LEADERS

Albert Einstein, offering perhaps the most
succinct definition ever of insanity,=94 said it
was performing the very same task repeatedly, yet
expecting a different result each time. The
modern world's most famous physicist could easily
have been describing the government's five-decade old =93war on drugs.=94

In the past half century, one administration
after another has spent billions trying to rid
the country of those who choose to ingest
non-government sanctioned substances. Far from
achieving any measure of ultimate success, the
result of this so-called =93war=94 has been a net
increase in illicit drug users, a massive
increase in police powers, a huge increase in
America's prison population, and a depressing decrease in civil liberties.

Now, a breath of fresh air has wafted into the
debate over whether it makes sense for
governments to continue to engage in this costly
conflict. A report issued by the Global
Commission on Drug Policy, a panel composed of
prominent world leaders, including former
Secretary of State George Schultz and former
Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, has
concluded that the =93global war on drugs has
failed, with devastating consequences for
individuals and societies around the world.=94

Unfortunately, and sadly, Washington's response
to this impressive report is likely to be to
ignore it, and keep right on marching to the same
tune. In so doing, the federal government ignores
another key and irrefutable conclusion of the
Commission's report: that the ongoing war on
drugs has caused the =93growth of a `huge criminal
black market, financed by the risk-escalated
profits of supplying international demand for illicit drugs.=94

In addition to recommending treatment rather than
incarceration for non-violent drug addicts, the
commission's solution is decriminalization of
drugs. Despite reservations that most politicians
in the United States harbor about
decriminalization, the policy has a track record of demonstrable success.

For example, when Portugal decriminalized drugs a
decade ago, there were dire warnings that drug
usage would increase dramatically and the country
would become a destination for tourists seeking
to get high. A 2009 white paper, authored by
Glenn Greenwald for the Cato Institute, found
such predictions have not materialized.

Through his extensive research, Greenwald also
found that drug-related pathologies =AD such as
sexually transmitted diseases and deaths due to
drug usage =AD have decreased dramatically=94; and in
so doing, decriminalization actually opened the
door to better treatment options. Portugal still
fines people for possession, and applies no
criminal penalties; although drug trafficking remains a crime.

The conclusions reached by the Global Commission
are hardly new. In 1996, the National Review,
founded by conservative icon William F. Buckley,
Jr., declared the =93War on Drugs is lost.=94 The
magazine's advocacy of drug legalization was
based on pragmatic considerations. The Review
also understood that the war was =93diverting
intelligent energy away from how to deal with the
problem of addiction, that it is wasting our
resources, and that it is encouraging civil,
judicial, and penal procedures associated with
police states.=94 Political leaders predictably
ignored what the National Review knew.

Outside the United States, political leaders
understand it is our country, with its seeming
insatiable appetite for illicit drugs, which must
lead the way toward reform. According to the Los
Angeles Times, for example, Mexican President
Felipe Calderon, who says he is open to dialogue
despite having stepped up his country's own
bloody war against brutal drug cartels,
understands it would be =93absurd=94 to consider
legalization in Mexico as long as narcotics
remain illegal north of the border, =93where the
massive demand determines the prices and profitability of the drug trade.=94

The rest of the world may be waiting for the
United States to at least acknowledge this latest
credible conclusion that the billions we spend
trying to change human nature, will achieve no
more success than in the past decades. Unfortunately, it probably waits in v
ain.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart