Pubdate: Mon, 20 Apr 2015
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 2015 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/IuiAC7IZ
Website: http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/82
Author: Phil Kadner

A 'GOOD DAY' FOR LAWYER WHO FOUGHT AGAINST DRUG WAR

Would Al Capone have loved drug prohibition? This man thinks so

James Gierach sounded almost giddy when I telephoned him Monday to
get his reaction to Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez's 
announcement that she would no longer prosecute misdemeanor marijuana 
cases and would refer non-violent felony drug offenders for treatment.

"It's wonderful," Gierach said. "It's progress. It's almost like the
sun is shining. It's not yet. But maybe we're moving out of the Dark
Ages toward enlightenment. It's something to be happy about."

In 1992, Gierach, a Palos Park lawyer, announced he was running for
Cook County state's attorney and would campaign to get drug addicts
treatment instead of prison terms.

A member of a respected legal family (his father Will Gierach was a
Cook County judge and had launched one of the most respected municipal
law firms in the south suburbs) there were longtime business
associates who wondered if Gierach had lost his marbles and newspaper
pundits who thought he was just wacko.

Gierach lost the Democratic Party primary election that year, but has
spent the 23 years since that time attending seminars, workshops and
hearings on drug policy throughout the world.

"If Al Capone were alive today, he would be an advocate of drug
prohibition, just like all the politicians who have supported it,"
Gierach said, referencing the notorious gangster who capitalized off
of alcohol prohibition. "By prohibiting marijuana you've turned a
plant people can grow almost anywhere into one of the most valuable
commodities on Earth."

Gierach noted that, in her news conference, Alvarez said that felony
drug possession cases represented almost one-fourth of the 40,000
felony cases prosecuted by her office.

"Law enforcement agencies aren't out there solving violent crimes
because they're out there arresting people for possession of
marijuana," Gierach said. "Resources that could be used to hire more
police officers, better train detectives, are being used to prosecute
people for the possession of marijuana.

"Our policy on drugs has killed people. That's a fact. People are
being murdered every day in Chicago and throughout the country in
crimes involving drugs because of our national policy. The costs of
prisons have increased because our prisons are full of people who have
been put there because of drug-related crimes.

"You want to know why Alvarez is doing this now? Because (Cook County
Board President) Toni Preckwinkle doesn't have the money to keep all
these people in the Cook County Jail. It's because Alvarez no longer
has the money or the attorneys to keep prosecuting people for drug
crimes.

"That's why things are finally changing," Gierach said. "We're just
running out of money.

"And you want to know something else? You can solve the massive
pension problem in this state by legalizing marijuana. You reduce the
number of people in prison and tax the drugs and treat the people with
drug problems and you save hundreds of millions, maybe billions, of
dollars."

I've known Gierach for nearly 30 years and told him that I still don't
think the general public is ready for the legalization of illegal drugs.

"I ask people all the time what they think is worse, drugs or the war
on drugs?" Gierach said. "I ask people that in grocery store lines, in
banks, hotels, wherever I go. And you know what they always answer,
whether they're rich or poor, no matter if they're living in a
high-crime or low-crime neighborhood? They answer the war on drugs is
worse than the drug problem itself."

Gierach, 70, is the executive board vice chairman of Law Enforcement
Against Prohibition (LEAP) an international organization of former law
enforcement and criminal justice officials who speak out against the
failures of existing drug policies throughout the world.

As one of the leaders of the organization, Gierach has been attending
annual meetings of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs in
Geneva for the last four years.

"There's a list of something like 119 narcotics that are illegal,"
Gierach said. "They are on something called a yellow list. But you
know what the cartels have done, they have been creating substitute
drugs, that mimic these illegal drugs, but they're not illegal.

"The first year I went to Geneva, the Commission on Narcotic Drugs
listed 50 new synthetic drugs they had found on the market. The next
year, it was about 50. The year after that it was 100. And last year
it was 300 new synthetic drugs."

"These drugs sell for a higher profit than the old drugs. The cartels
are making a fortune off of them. And none of them are banned because
they're different types of narcotics than the ones on the list.

"The drug war is a joke. It has cost everyone a fortune. It has wasted
billions of dollars that could have been used for social programs that
actually help people. And, as I said, it has actually caused the
violent deaths of people all across the world because we've made it
such a profitable industry.

"Prohibition only does one thing and that's increase the value of the
drugs that you're prohibiting. It certainly doesn't stop anyone from
getting drugs. That's just a fact."

Gierach said he recalls arguing against expanding the Cook County Jail
from a capacity of 9,000 to 10,000 many years ago, claiming that the
county would be better off decreasing the size of the jail population
than increasing the size of the jail itself.

"But we went ahead and did it and doubled the bonded-indebtedness of
Cook County at the time," Gierach said. "It's just crazy. Now, we're
finally running out of money so we're starting to adopt the approach
that we should have taken decades ago."

In fact, Alvarez said pretty much the same thing at her press
conference.

"Traditional methods of prosecution are not working," Alvarez said.
"We want to create a sea change in dealing with low-level drug crimes
for nonviolent repeat offenders."

There will be no prosecutions for misdemeanor charges for possession
of less than 30 grams of marijuana for those with less than three
arrests or citations for similar charges, Alvarez said,

People who have been arrested three or more times will be sent to an
existing drug school program and have their charges dismissed if they
complete the program.

Even class 4 felony drug possession cases will be referred to drug
treatment programs and social service agencies unless they have
significant criminal histories of violence.

"Drugs are bad, and I am not promoting any drug use," Alvarez said,
obviously trying to placate the anti-drug crowd. "This is not being
soft on crime at all. This is being smart."

Gierach laughs when he hears that kind of rhetoric.

"I understand why people still don't want to use the words
'decriminalize' or 'legalize' when it comes to drugs and I really
don't care what words they do use," he said.

"Eighty percent of our violent crime is related to drug crimes. The
police chief of Chicago said that.

"Take the profit out of drugs," Gierach continued. "Give drug addicts
an alternative an access to health care. Reduce the profit motive that
spurs the increase in violent crime. That's all I've ever wanted.

"This is a return to sanity. This is a good day. Let's just leave it
at that."
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