THE MIDNIGHT RIDE OF CARL MUMPOWER

Carl Mumpower is in scold mode again, this time chastising the
Asheville Police Department for not doing enough to combat drug
dealing. (He recently scolded all of us for not doing more to save
McCormick Heights housing development.) According to the Xpress,
Mumpower wrote in an e-mail, "APD is not matching the creativity,
enthusiasm and persistency of those dealing drugs on our streets." To
which one might reasonably reply, "No duh!" And simple economics
explains why this is so. There is too much money in illegal drugs for
there to be a reasonable expectation that any police activity will
have a significant impact on it over time. During my 33-year career
in substance abuse and addiction programs, I came to understand that
it will only be by legalizing those drugs that are now illegal that
we will have an impact on illegal drug dealing.

There is an enormous vested interest in keeping the system as it is,
due to the enormous sums of money that governments - local, state and
federal - spend to arrest, adjudicate and imprison tens of thousands
of people (predominantly young black males) while ensuring that a
significant proportion of those charged with implementing this system
- - street cops, prosecutors, judges, prison employees - will be
corrupted by it. Alcohol Prohibition provided the environment for
"organized crime" to develop and flourish, a legacy with us today.

By continuing a prohibitionist policy towards other mood-altering
drugs, we perpetuate and foster another culture of crime.

All the problems related to alcohol were not eliminated by ending
prohibition, but it did significantly reduce crime related to the
manufacture and distribution of beverage alcohol.

Legalizing other drugs will not eliminate all problems related to
their availability, but it would significantly reduce crime related
to the manufacture and distribution of those drugs.

Until prohibition is ended, Carl Mumpower can ride around with the
APD all he wants, buy crack cocaine in housing developments to show
how easy it is, scold all of us because we are insufficiently
committed to the cause, and it will not alter the realities on the street.

It is because of the huge sums of money that can be made due to the
economics of the black market that no police department or
criminal-justice system will ever be able to match "the creativity,
enthusiasm and persistence of those dealing drugs on our streets."

Robert F. Wilson

Asheville