Pubdate: Sat, 09 Jul 2011
Source: Billings Gazette, The (MT)
Copyright: 2011 The Billings Gazette
Contact: http://billingsgazette.com/app/contact/?contact=letter
Website: http://www.billingsgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/515
Author: Niki Zupanic
Note: Niki Zupanic is the public policy director of the ACLU of Montana.

WAR ON DRUGS IS A LOSING BATTLE, OVER AND OVER AGAIN

A 40-year war in which the number of victims and the amount of money 
spent increase each year and where there is no end in sight can only 
be viewed as a failure.

Forty years ago in June, President Richard Nixon declared a "war on drugs."

Today, we live with the consequences of the failed policies that war 
has generated -- policies that have imprisoned millions, destroyed 
families and entire communities and have done nothing to stem drug addiction.

Drug offenses are the No. 1 crime for which Montanans are convicted, 
and marijuana is far and away the drug most often involved in those 
convictions.

About one-third of Montana drug convictions result in prison time, 
costing taxpayers $95 a day per person for incarceration and the 
unquantifiable social costs of broken families. Montana, of course, 
is not unique. States across the nation prosecute drug crimes in much 
the same way.

So is all this prosecution and imprisonment making people safer? Is 
the crime rate declining? Are fewer people using drugs? The answer to 
all these questions is a resounding no. Prisons are bursting at the 
seams and drug use is up 10 percent since the start of the war on drugs.

Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron estimates that legalizing drugs and 
regulating them the way we do alcohol and tobacco would create an 
annual $88 billion boon to the national economy.

Montana legislators had an opportunity to regulate and even tax 
voter-approved medical marijuana this session but threw that chance 
down the drain in favor of knee-jerk "drugs are bad," reform that 
helps no one, but hurts thousands of suffering patients.

Instead of pursuing common-sense solutions that treat addiction and 
make it possible for drug offenders to lead productive lives, we as a 
nation seem to have an obsession with punishing them -- not for the 
actual harm they've committed, but because we are mad at them for using drugs.

Make no mistake. Those who commit crimes like robbery, assault, 
burglary and other offenses in the pursuit of drugs should be tried 
and punished for those crimes. But to incarcerate them for simply 
using drugs serves no one. It costs taxpayers to build and operate 
new prisons, and it costs families who lose fathers and mothers.

Drug possession is the only crime for which we lock up thousands of 
people because they might harm themselves, even when they have harmed 
no one else.

Even those who believe that drugs should remain illegal can't argue 
that those who serve time in prison and are offered no treatment or 
training are more likely to commit more crime than those who are 
offered treatment or other re-entry programs.

It would make more sense to decriminalize possession of small amounts 
of drugs and to keep first-time offenders out of jail.

States that have increased their focus on treatment have seen 
positive results. In Texas, a new emphasis on treating drug offenders 
has contributed to the state's lowest crime rate since 1973.

The current war on drugs is a war in its death-spiral. It's time to 
find new solutions to address drug addiction, to improve public 
safety and to preserve families.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom