{news} Fw: Designing an Exit Strategy for the war on drugs

[clifford thornton]

NEAL PEIRCE COLUMN   
  For Release Sunday, August 27, 2006

   © 2006 Washington Post Writers Group
  
  DESIGNING AN 'EXIT STRATEGY'
  FOR THE WAR ON DRUGS

  By Neal Peirce

        SEATTLE -- Is it time to forge an "exit strategy" for the our 
prolonged "war on drugs"?
        That question -- normally considered a "no-no" in legal circles, 
especially among prosecutors and police -- has been raised by the 
prestigious King County (Wash.) Bar Association since 2000.  And the 
results have been impressive.  King County is sending minor street drug 
users and sellers through drug courts instead of incarcerating them; its 
average daily jail count is down from 2,800 to 2,000.  The Washington 
Legislature was persuaded to cut back drastically on mandatory drug 
possession sentences, apportioning funds to adult and juvenile drug 
courts and family "dependency courts."  Tens of millions of dollars have 
been saved.
        "This project isn't for fringy pony-tailed pot smokers," insists 
Roger Goodman, director of the bar association's drug policy project. 
"We did it for the courts. We can't get civil cases heard for three 
years. And the drug cases are mostly so petty."
        The uncomfortable truth is that despite decades of aggressive 
government crackdowns, U.S. drug use and drug-related crime are as high 
as ever.  Made profitable by prohibition, violent criminal enterprises 
they purvey drugs are flourishing.  Harsh criminal sanctions, even for 
minor drug possession, have packed jails and prisons.  Public coffers 
have been drained of funds for critical preventive social services,
         Internationally, we're discovering that the U.S.'s heavy-handed 
campaign of illegal drug eradication in countries like Colombia is about 
as successful as we've found our parallel military adventure into Iraq.  
Despite the stunning $4.7 billion we've spent since 2000 on planes 
fumigating Colombia's coca crop, farmers there are producing just as 
much cocaine as before our aerial assault. 
        Back home, "street" prices for cocaine have dropped  and purity 
remains high.  Prohibition has failed equally to stamp out markets and 
quality, or increase street prices for heroin, methamphetamine and 
marijuana.  The drug war kicked off by President Nixon in the '70s, and 
copied by state and local governments nationally, costs $40 billion or 
more a year. It is a massive, embarrassing, destructive failure.
        But politicians are normally afraid to question the system for 
fear of being called illegal drug apologists.  So how did the King 
County Bar get the ball rolling?  "It's the messenger, not the message" 
-- the credibility of the bar association, says Goodman.  The King 
County Bar in fact assembled a nationally unprecedented coalition of 
supporters, ranging from the Washington State Bar Association to the 
King County and Washington State Medical Associations, the Church 
Council of Greater Seattle and the League of Women Voters of Seattle and 
Washington.
        And the first-stated goals weren't scuttling drug laws.  
Instead, the bar association announced its platform as (1) reductions in 
crime and disorder -- "to undercut the violent, illegal markets that 
spawn disease, crime, corruption, mayhem and death," (2) improving 
public health by stemming spread of blood-borne diseases, (3) better 
protection of children from the harm of drugs, and (4) wiser use of 
scarce public resources.
        Now the bar association and its allies are asking the Washington 
Legislature to establish a commission of experts to design how the state 
can switch from punitive approaches to a focus on treatment, shutting 
down the criminal gangs that now control the drug trade.
        As controversial as it sounds, programs for victims (most likely 
adults) of such dangerously addictive drugs as heroin, cocaine and 
methamphetamine may be easiest to fashion.  Rather than leaving them to 
the streets and black market exploitation, there may -- as some European 
models suggest -- be ways to register addicts, provide controlled 
amounts of drugs in medical settings, and try to guide them into treatment.
        For marijuana, control by cartels that now provide huge 
quantities might be broken by state licensing of home production (like 
brewing) and non-commercial exchanges.  Or a state distribution system 
like state liquor stores, demonstrably effective in denying sales to 
youth, could be established.
        The toughest issues may surround protection of children.  Today, 
it's noted, they get contradictory messages-- "Take a pill to feel 
better," and "Just say no, except when you're 21 and then you can 
drink."  Youth see commercial advertising pushing a wide variety of 
mind-altering, pleasure-inducing substances, even while society leaves 
control of so-called "illicit" drugs to criminal gangs.  Plus, kids /do/ 
like to experiment. 
        A realistic program could start with respecting young people, 
providing them honest information, on uses of -- and the demonstrable 
dangers -- of alcohol, tobacco and drugs.  Goodman notes that in the 13 
states where medical use of marijuana is authorized, teen use is down.   
"It's not as cool when grandma uses marijuana for cancer pain," he says.
        There's surely no risk-free "exit" from today's terribly 
destructive drug war.  But we /have/ to try -- and we should thank 
communities and states with the courage to lead.

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