A FAILED DRUG WAR

The recent bust of a marijuana and psilocybin growing operation in
Blacksburg by the New River Regional Drug Task Force implies success to
many people. "Another dealer in dangerous drugs off the street," some will say.

But there are others, even those within the law enforcement community, who
dissent and say that this low-level bust has really accomplished nothing
and is but another insignificant bump in the perpetual war on drugs.

Former President Richard Nixon declared a war on marijuana in 1971.

Marijuana is still here, the war is still here. Have we won? No. Have we
accomplished anything? No.

In Western states, law enforcement has been engulfed by a bumper crop of
marijuana being grown on our public lands, including our national parks.
Criminal syndicates are planting tens of thousands of plants in remote
areas using chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides.

These large "farms" are polluting Western waterways and endangering
citizens who enjoy activities in America's great outdoors. Officials say up
to 75 percent of the illegal plants seized in the West are being grown in
these large and remote growing operations.

The results of Nixon's war have made marijuana now worth its weight in
gold, literally. And it is that inflated value that has foreign gangs and
criminal syndicates so actively involved in these operations.

Drug Enforcement Administration figures show nearly 4 million pot plants
were seized in 2005 in California. There are, of course, no figures on how
many plants were harvested without being seized, but assuming as many as
one-third of the plants grown were seized means 8 million plants made it to
market. Even at discounted, wholesale rates, we can easily see that
billions of dollars are going into criminal coffers.

How can we end this cycle of failure?

As a former chief of police, trained by both the FBI and DEA in drug
enforcement, I've served as a front-line warrior in street enforcement.

When I began doing serious research on the drug war, I concluded that it is
not only a total failure but it also has caused tremendous damage to the
fabric of society. I found not one benefit to this war that could be
identified and instead found a myriad of unintended destructive
consequences. In fact, the war proved counterproductive to every one of its
stated goals.

It is that failure, witnessed on the street and in my research, that
prompted me to join others from my profession in the group Law Enforcement
Against Prohibition (www.leap.cc). A mere four years old, LEAP now has
6,500 members across the United States and Canada, with great interest
coming from our European counterparts.

This war is a war at home. And it doesn't matter if your home is in Atlanta
or Afghanistan because this war is failing everywhere. This is a war that
has wedged our citizens between the police -- honorably attempting to
uphold the laws that are their duty to enforce -- and the criminals seeking
to profit from a market that has no regulation. A market that doesn't
dictate any age restrictions and has no licensing, no permits and, best of
all, no taxes. The same market that many decades ago made a street thug
named Al Capone into one of the most powerful men in America.

What some refer to as "drug harm" is really drug war damage.

Overcrowded jails and prisons, although surrounded by razor wire and closed
circuit monitoring, can't keep drugs out. A prison system that now has a
population of more than 2 million people makes the land of the free the
most incarcerated population on the planet.

Legalization is a word that often makes people uncomfortable. That is why I
prefer "re-legalization." Except for the newer drugs, there was a time when
these drugs were all legal.

Bayer marketed heroin, available without a prescription from the local
store. Addiction rates back then were no different than they are today.

Prohibition is a policy predetermined to fail. It failed with alcohol, and
we ended it. It is failing with drugs and must be ended again. The war on
drugs is a failure in fact, practice and principle.