POLICE PAY, TOO: NATION'S WAR ON DRUGS EXACTS TERRIBLE PRICE

With each massive drug seizure, evidence mounts that this country is sadly
losing the war on drugs - not to drug cartels or drug traffickers over
there - but to the dependably relentless appetite for illegal drugs created
by our neighbors right here at home. Eighty-six years after Congress passed
the 1914 Harrison Act that criminalized drugs, America's drug consumption
thrives. Our nation's premier drug-war strategy of more police, more
interdiction, and more incarceration is failing and the trajectory
continues downward.

Our strategy calls for more police presence on our nation's streets.
Drug-law enforcement, however, is a very difficult proposition at all
levels. Drug violations are generally consensual. In almost every case,
willing buyers and willing sellers participate secretly in this highly
profitable criminalized industry.

SO IN order for police - federal or otherwise - to do their jobs they must
snoop, spy, sniff, sneak, and covertly surveil in order to snag drug
quantities, drug traffickers, or drug users. Most of the snooping,
sneaking, and snagging is done primarily through the use of informants -
people who use their own criminal status or position to gain some benefit
from the police by trading information.

It is a dangerous, dirty business, chock full of espionage, deceit, lies,
and double-crosses. I am concerned about what this side of the police
business is doing to other sides of our profession ethically and morally.

We need only to look at the LAPD's current Rampart scandal for a salient
example. We put our integrity, our hard-earned community trust, and our
credibility at risk when police stoop to snooping on fellow Americans over
drugs.

I am concerned about the billions of dollars spent every year by our
nation's police in attempting to eradicate or intercept illegal drug
shipments to our country. These billions might be better spent on demand
reduction, prevention, treatment, education, community-building, and
supporting families. Federal agencies spend countless hours tracking
planes, boats, trains, and other vehicles transporting cocaine, heroin, and
marijuana earmarked for the U.S. market. These agencies and others have
scored many widely publicized successes in detection, eradication,
seizures, and arrests both in foreign countries and within our borders.

A FEW YEARS ago drug agents in Los Angeles seized nearly 20 tons of cocaine
and more than $10 million in cash in what was called the largest drug haul
in history, with street values estimated at up to $20 billion. What is
really even more astounding about a seizure of this size is the non-effect
it had on the street price of a usable quantity of cocaine.

During the weeks afterward the price per unit of cocaine actually dropped
to the lowest levels ever in the L.A. area instead of rising, as one would
expect because of market forces. This simply indicates that the nation is
awash in cocaine and other illegal drugs and that even a mammoth seizure
such as this one is just a drop in the proverbial bucket.

I am also concerned about the "business" of drug-crime incarcerations in
our country. It really is big business, composed of hundreds of thousands
of law-enforcement and prison officials, drug courts, private and public
prisons, anti-drug organizations, drug-testing labs, clearing houses, and
many others who benefit economically and politically from this ever-growing
bounty.

Our lock-ups at all levels are fuller today than ever before. In 1980,
approximately 50,000 people were behind bars for violating drug laws.
Today, because of aggressive policing, prosecution, and mandatory
sentences, that number is approaching 500,000. Warehousing people is one of
the fastest growing and most profitable businesses in our country-all
supported by taxpayer dollars.

SO IT appears our rigid anti-drug strategy and our punitive prohibition
efforts are failing. Former Secretary of State George Shultz said recently
that any real and lasting change that occurs in a democratic society is
done through education and persuasion and not through coercion and force.
Perhaps it's time to heed his sage advice and search for alternative
approaches to our current drug-control strategies that will be more
effective, fair, and humane in reducing drug usage and drug dependency;
that will emphasize treatment, prevention, and education; and that will
rely on our social and health systems more than on our criminal-justice
systems.

A growing number of thoughtful Americans across the political spectrum have
strong doubts about the efficacy of the current drug war, its costs, its
true impact, and its future consequences. They want to rethink our
direction and possibilities. As a police officer on the front line, quite
frankly I'm one of them.