WAR ON DRUGS A FAILURE

For those readers of The Willits News who may have seen the "Yes on
Measure B" paid advertisement in last Friday's paper in which 79
inland Mendocino County's fine physicians endorsed the measure, I
would like to explain why my name was not among them (in case anyone
noticed).

My reason is simple: I oppose the War on Drugs, which came into
existence in 1970 under Nixon, and it is really the War on Drugs that
is the problem. The fact Measure G invited abuse is self-evident at
this time, no doubt. But that abuse exists only within the context of
a legal system in which recreational and therapeutic drugs have been
categorized by their potential to help or harm, often arbitrarily and
certainly by other people's estimation.

The net result of this puritanical approach to human behavior that
people want to feel better than they do has been the criminalization
of millions of otherwise decent fellow citizens, the ruination of
their families, and the loss to society of immeasurable potential. Not
because of the drugs themselves, or their immediate or long-term
health consequences, but because of the results of involvement in the
criminal justice/penal system created to capture, prosecute and
penalize those whose only real crime was using a substance someone
else didn't approve of.

It is easy to argue that more harm than good has occurred over the
past 38 years to individuals and society because of the drug war.
Billions of taxpayer dollars have been spent. Lives have been lost and
careers wasted. Whatever may have been the motivation at the time, the
War on Drugs has failed utterly to solve that which it intended: To
create a drug-free America.

Instead it has helped create a world of secondary crime, often
violent, where little if any existed before. It has helped create an
incarceration industry and spawn a police state to deal with
offenders. It brought about drug cartels, and governments at times in
collusion and at others times in battle with them. It commonly
corrupted those involved, the pursuers and the pursued. And there are
far more illegal drugs to be used now than 1970, and more people using
them.

I hope you will not misunderstand my point. I am not pro-drug use of
any sort. Ideally, no one would use or have a need to use any drug of
any kind, including alcohol and tobacco. Unfortunately, this is not
the case. Sooner or later, we all take something for some perceived
ailment or pleasure, self-diagnosed or medically-diagnosed; acute,
chronic or potentially fatal. That "something" may be legal or
illegal, prescription or over-the-counter, pharmaceutical or herb,
used to treat disease, relieve symptoms, alleviate pain, or lessen
mental duress.

Some people use drugs to get high, some to relieve suffering. Everyone
ultimately is trying to feel better than they may be otherwise.

Trying to feel better is not immoral, nor should it be illegal. Doing
so and hurting others in the process is a different story altogether.
Kids doing drugs is also another story, as their nervous systems are
still in development and should be drug-free in order to develop
normally. That goes for pregnant women as well.

If the issue with Measure B is actually commercial pot growing, we
need to ask the fundamental question: "Why would anyone want to
produce anything commercially?" The answer is very simple: Because
there is a profit to be made. However it is the illegality of
something that creates a black market for that item and hence an
unnatural and inflated profit that would not otherwise exist.

We have learned to accept alcohol and tobacco, with certain use
limitations, despite knowing their downside risks, thus avoiding the
added calamities of illegality. Placing consumption taxes on them
helps add to the public coffers.

When an item must be procured outside of legal markets, these funds
are lost to society. Its price will have little to do with its
intrinsic value, its production cost, or even its availability. The
law of supply and demand will still prevail, but in a perverted way.
In particular, as long as marijuana is illegal anywhere, its price and
profitability will flourish, and there will be those who will want to
join in.

Let's allow our criminal justice/penal system to put its resources to
work instead on those who truly hurt others and society by their
lying, cheating, stealing, maiming and killing. Those are the things
we must have protection from. Let's reallocate those funds and
energies away from criminality, punishment and incarceration of drug
offenders, and towards education and therapy instead.

Save the jails for those who really do harm.

The War on Drugs itself is a bust, as was Prohibition, and it must end
if we are to move on as a society. In the meantime, I'll abstain from
Measure B, as I abstained on its predecessor, Measure G, and keep
advocating for real change.

Dr. Monte Lieberfarb, M.D.

Willits