DRUG WAR'S CASUALTY

Conservatives should rethink their support for John P. Walters, who has
been nominated by President Bush as director of National Drug Control
Policy. While they are at it, they should reconsider their commitment to
the war on drugs, which is destroying our freedom.

Mr. Walters is a good man, and he would pursue drugs energetically. The
problem with Mr. Walters is that he would pursue drugs at too high a cost
to our civil liberties and privacy and at the expense of the sovereignty of
Latin American countries.

The conservatives' war on drugs is an example of good intentions that have
had unfortunate consequences. As often happens with noble causes, the end
justifies the means, and the means of the drug war are inconsistent with
the U.S. Constitution and our civil liberties.

Think about it. In the name of what other cause would conservatives support
unconstitutional property confiscations, unconstitutional searches, and
Orwellian Big Brother invasions of privacy?

Early in the 20th century, the U.S. conducted a war on alcohol. After
experiencing the results, people came to their senses. They realized
Prohibition criminalized the behavior of millions of people and created a
class of ruthless and rich criminals capable of corrupting local judges and
law enforcement. Fortunately, prohibition was terminated before it overrode
the takings clause of the Constitution.

The war on drugs has proved to be equally frustrating. But instead of
reassessing the consequences, conservatives have escalated the power of the
state, arming law enforcement with more and more draconian powers that
violate the Constitution.

The takings clause (Fifth Amendment) is one victim. The takings cause
forbids the seizure of private property without compensation. It does not
apply to contraband (illegal goods such as drugs). However, the asset
forfeiture laws that conservatives created permit the seizure of perfectly
legal goods if police assert they have reason to believe the property
facilitated a drug crime. If any drugs are found on any property, that
property is considered to have facilitated a drug offense

The Founding Fathers put the takings clause in our Constitution to prevent
government from confiscating property as punishment for a crime. The
British king, for example, could declare the property of a person convicted
of a serious crime to be forfeited, thus dispossessing the entire family.

In this respect, the war on drugs has made us worse off than we were under
King George III. In 18th century Britain, forfeiture required conviction of
the property owner. In 20th and 21st century America, forfeiture has not
required conviction of the property owner. Indeed, the property can be
confiscated even if another person brings drugs on the owner's property
without his permission or knowledge. People have lost homes, motels, boats,
cars and airplanes because of the behavior of nonowners.

The Fourth Amendment's restriction on search and seizure is another victim
of the war on drugs. Random roadblocks and searches without probable cause
are part of the war on drugs.

The effort to prevent drug revenues from being "laundered" has resulted in
massive invasions of privacy. The government listens to international
telephone calls, snoops on e-mail transmissions, and constructed a massive
program, "Carnivore," for monitoring private communications. Banks and
financial institutions are required to spy and report on their customers.

Even the legal tender and store of value functions of money have been
impaired by limiting cash payments and deposits to relatively small amounts
and by seizing cash from those entering or leaving the country with $10,001.

The war on drugs has caused U.S. political and military involvement in the
internal affairs of sovereign nations. U.S. drug agents arrest and kidnap
foreign nationals in their own countries. These are extremely dangerous
precedents and confirm the propaganda that the U.S. is a bully nation.

The war against drugs has proved to be largely a war against drug
consumers. The prison population is swollen with young people whose lives
are ruined by prison sentences. It is a personal tragedy for a person to
ruin his life with alcohol, drugs, gambling or any other vice. But it is a
public tragedy when government ruins the lives of millions of its citizens
simply because it disapproves of a product they consume.

The "war on drugs" is, in truth, a war on the Constitution, civil
liberties, privacy, property, freedom and common sense. It must be stopped.