FORMER PROSECUTOR SAYS WAR ON DRUGS 'A WASTE OF TAXPAYERS' MONEY'

The war on drugs is a dismal failure and should end, a former
Washington state prosecutor said on Saturday.

In a speech before the American Civil Liberties Union in Helena, Jim
Doherty said it's time to stop arresting people for possession of
drugs like marijuana, heroin and even methamphetamine. Instead of
putting these people in jail, they could be put in treatment
programs, using the money spent in the war on drugs for
rehabilitation and education.

"Nixon made the war on drugs a priority, and he may have had good
intentions ... but for whatever reasons, the escalation and
criminalization has only made the problem worse," Doherty said. "We
have taken people with a social or medical problem and stamped them
as criminals. We put them into prison and make it almost impossible
for them to re-integrate into society."

He noted that the United States spends $13 billion a year in its war
on drugs, yet street drugs are still as easy to obtain as they were
in the 1970s.

"What a waste of taxpayers' money," Doherty said. "So if we haven't
cut down on the availability of drugs, what have we accomplished?"

He's a member of the group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, or
LEAP, which was founded in 2002 as a way for law enforcement officers
to speak out against the war on drugs. Group members believe that the
government has worsened the drug problem instead of alleviating it.

They're calling for a system of regulation and control of all illegal
substances by the government, which would replace the current control
by the black market. This would be less harmful, less costly, more
ethical and more effective public policy, according to information on
the group's Web site, www.leap.cc

Regulation by the government also would be a better way to keep drugs
out of the hands of children, Doherty said.

"Look at the 18th amendment, when we tried to prohibit the use of
alcohol in the 1920s. So what did we get? The Roaring Twenties,"
Doherty said. "The murder rate went up and the black market took over
control of the commodity ... just like what's happening today with drugs."

He points to the regulation of cigarettes as an example of government control.

"Sometimes it's harder for kids to get cigarettes than marijuana
because it's locked up behind the counters," Doherty said. "It's not
going to be perfect, but it might be a significant way of restricting
access to drugs by children, by having them in a regulatory environment."

More than 5,000 police, parole and probation officers, judges and
prosecutors are involved in the group, as well as prison wardens and
FBI and DEA agents. Doherty said they've enlisted the help of civic
organizations, medical groups and other professionals to show that
they're not a bunch drug users but thoughtful, productive members of
society who think that someone shouldn't be thrown in prison because
they smoke dope or shoot heroin.

In the past five years, the U.S. has arrested 9 million people for
nonviolent drug offenses, which is far more per capita than any
country in the world, the group notes.

"If they're not harming anybody, it shouldn't be the government's
business," he said. "If you commit a crime under the influence of
drugs, you need to be prosecuted under the system. But if you're not
committing a crime, not doing something violent or hurting other
people, just possessing drugs, that shouldn't be a crime."