WAR ON DRUGS DOES MORE HARM THAN GOOD

The case of the Schenectady police officer convicted of drug-related
corruption is not an isolated incident.

This insidious form of institutional corruption stretches from coast to
coast and reaches the highest levels. The high-profile Los Angeles Police
Department's Rampart scandal involved anti-drug officers selling drugs and
framing gang members. A former commander of U.S. anti-drug operations in
Colombia was found guilty of laundering the profits of his wife's heroin
smuggling operation. Entire countries have been destabilized due to the
corrupting influence of the illegal drug trade.

Like alcohol prohibition in the 1920s, the drug war is causing tremendous
societal harm, while failing miserably at preventing use. Drug laws fuel
organized crime and violence. That justifies increased drug-war spending.
It's time to end this madness and start treating all substance abuse, legal
or otherwise, as the public health problem it is. Jail cells are
inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective as deterrents.

Based on findings that criminal records do more harm than marijuana, a
majority of European Union countries have decriminalized pot. Despite harsh
penalties and perhaps because of forbidden fruit appeal, lifetime use of
marijuana is higher in the United States than any European country.

The war on some drugs has done little other than give rise to a massive
prison-industrial complex.

Robert Sharpe

Program Officer Drug Policy Alliance Washington, D.C.