{news} Drug policy has failed

[Clifford Thornton]

Drug policy has failed
  Kingsley Guy | COLUMNIST 
  August 15, 2008 
By Kingsley Guy 

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/columnists/sfl-kgcol15sbaug15,0,7706042.column<http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/columnists/sfl-kgcol15sbaug15,0,7706042.column>

Is the push to legalize marijuana in Florida for medical use a legitimate attempt to eliminate pain and suffering, or a thinly-veiled effort by unreconstructed hippies to legally get high?

I don't know, and frankly, don't care.

It's time to shift the debate from side issues like medical marijuana, and instead look at decriminalizing all recreational drugs. The nation must face the fact that the war on drugs has been a dismal failure causing far more damage than it has mitigated, and it just isn't worth the price.

Americans came to a similar conclusion in1933 when they voted to end the war on alcohol by repealing Prohibition. That effort at social engineering was called the Noble Experiment, and it failed.

Alcohol was, and still is, the most deadly mind-altering drug in the United States. Prohibition didn't stop people from drinking, but it did generate criminal activity that corrupted society. 

The enormous profits from bootlegging and rum running created underworld organizations that survive today. The money so debased politicians and judges that mob bosses often pulled the strings of government. With alcohol illegal, production standards disappeared, and tainted alcohol killed and injured tens of thousands of people. 

The failed war on drugs has had a similar impact, but worse. Many inner city neighborhoods are all but inhabitable because of gang wars fueled by profits from the drug trade. Robbery and burglary cause people to live in fear as drug users commit crimes to buy drugs with a street value 50 times that of the pharmaceutical value. The vast sums involved have undermined foreign governments, like Colombia's.

Half of America's prison beds are occupied by people convicted of drug related crimes. The tens of billions of dollars spent each year on apprehending, convicting and housing these people would be far better spent on improving schools and medical care. 

In case you think I'm some left-wing loon smoking a joint as I write this column, I assure you, I'm not. The late William F. Buckley<http://www.sun-sentinel.com/topic/economy-business-finance/media/william-f.-buckley-PECLB004350.topic>, the godfather of the conservative movement, held the same view. So did the late Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman<http://www.sun-sentinel.com/topic/economy-business-finance/economy/milton-friedman-PEHST002280.topic>, whose ideas stand at the core of conservative economic thinking. George P. Shultz, Ronald Regan's esteemed secretary of state, also has endorsed ending the drug war. 

"But if drugs are legalized, drug abuse will soar," you say.

That's not at all clear. Per capita alcohol consumption has declined sharply in the United States since the 19th century, and so has tobacco use, and alcohol and tobacco are both legal products. 

Government has a role to play in educating people on the dangers of drug use. It also has an obligation to punish severely those selling drugs to minors. 

Yes, drug abuse is immoral, but so is continuing a drug policy that causes more harm than good. 

Kingsley Guy duels the issues with Stephen L. Goldstein on alternate Fridays. E-mail him at harborlite3 at bellsouth.net<mailto:harborlite3 at bellsouth.net>



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