Pubdate: Wed, 12 Nov 2014
Source: Post-Standard, The (Syracuse, NY)
Copyright: 2014 Advance Publications
Contact: http://www.syracuse.com/mailforms/opinion/index.ssf
Website: http://www.syracuse.com/poststandard/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/686
Author: Jolene Almendarez
Note: Inge Fryklund, JD, PhD, is a former prosecutor who lives in 
Oregon. She is now a speaker for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition 
(LEAP), 150,000 law enforcement professionals and supporters in 128 
countries who have concluded that the war on drugs is a danger to 
public health and safety.

DRUG BUST IN SYRACUSE WAS JUST 'MOWING THE GRASS,' SAYS ADVOCATE FOR
LEGALIZATION

In late September, the New York Attorney General announced a drug 
bust in Syracuse resulting from a nine-month long investigation -- 34 
people arrested for dealing $1 million worth of heroin and cocaine.

Sounded like a big success -- but was it really? It seems more like 
mowing the grass. As long as there is demand, there will be supply. 
Taking these 34 people off the streets just means that others will 
take their places, and the jockeying for position usually means 
increased violence. The drug trade will go on, with no net effect on 
prices or availability.

To a drug cartel, the loss of $1 million worth of product is just a 
cost of doing business. It is a very minor "fine" given the size of 
the drug economy. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) recently 
estimated that the ultimate street value of just the opium products 
coming out of Afghanistan was $68 billion per year.

While seizures are a minor cost to cartels, all the costs of 
enforcement are real money for our communities. Given all our needs 
for education, economic development and infrastructure, we do not 
have millions to spare.

The current punitive policy does absolutely nothing to address all 
the problems associated with illegal drugs. An illegal market is 
necessarily criminal, and that entails violence and corruption. Drugs 
of unknown potency and purity are sold to kids by vendors who have 
every incentive to push stronger and more profitable products. Heroin 
users die of overdoses on adulterated product.

A regime under which drugs are regulated will do a better job of 
reducing violence, keeping drugs out of the hands of kids and 
preventing overdoses. We have left all decisions about distribution, 
sales, potency and purity up to the criminals. We are reactive, 
bringing in law enforcement after the damage has been done, and the 
cycle continues, year after year. This story is repeated in the 
Post-Standard so often that the reporters could "dust" off the 
previous copy, change the numbers and publish it.

This is the same strategy we pursued during Prohibition of Alcohol 
(1920-1933), with the same disastrous results. We need to rethink. A 
regime under which drugs are regulated will do a far better job of 
reducing violence, keeping drugs out of the hands of kids, and 
preventing overdoses. Regulation allows us to be proactive -- and 
only if something is legal is it possible for the community to 
implement a regulatory system.

Since 1994, Switzerland has pursued just such an approach to heroin. 
Any addict can come to a government clinic to get heroin. There have 
been no deaths from overdose, and dramatic drops in crime, patients 
selling heroin, and HIV and hepatitis transmission. Kids see nothing 
glamorous about a government clinic, so experimentation is down. 
Portugal decriminalized small amounts of all drugs in 2001. They 
report that teenage use is falling, HIV transmission is down, and 
treatment is up.

The Global Commission on Drug Policy (including Kofi Annan, Paul 
Volcker, George Shultz, and the former presidents of Poland, Chile, 
Switzerland, Colombia, Mexico and Portugal) just issued "Taking 
Control: Pathways to Drug Policies that Work," arguing that the 
worldwide war on drugs has been a costly and damaging failure and 
should be replaced by a regulatory system.

There is no perfect solution for substances that are both problematic 
and in demand. We can, however, reduce the harms to individuals and 
the community through proactive regulatory management.

It is time to take on board the lessons of the prohibition of 
alcohol. Take decisions out of the hands of criminals and put these 
decisions in the hands of responsible adults. Legalize and regulate. 
Put the cartels out of business, stop the violence, prevent sales to 
kids, and redirect the tax dollars now going to after the fact enforcement.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom