SOUND DRUG POLICY REQUIRES THAT POLITICIANS SPEAK THE TRUTH

Howard Woolbridge came to town last week and talked some truths about
the war on drugs. It's a failure. Let's legalize everything and say
that addiction is a medical problem rather than a legal problem.

Woolbridge is a retired cop from Lansing, Mich., and he is a member of
LEAP - Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. The organization is four
years old, but Woolbridge has been singing from the legalization
hymnal for a bit longer. He told me he's seen a shift in the public
attitude.

"Six years ago, I'd talk to a Rotary Club and people thought I was
crazy. Now even the skeptical people ask good questions. They're
hungry for new ideas," he said.

In addition to speaking to clubs, Woolbridge appeared on a couple of
radio call-in shows. He told me he got a lot of support from the callers.

That did not surprise me. I have been writing about the drug war for
years. I favor legalizing everything and giving the worst drugs away.
We can't stop people from being junkies or crack-heads anyway. It is,
of course, prohibition that causes drug prices to be artificially
high. If we made corn illegal and everybody who touched it on its way
to market risked going to jail, an ear of corn would soon cost $25. So
it is with illegal drugs. If a junkie wants to buy heroin that costs
$100 on the street (but should cost $10), he might burglarize your
house and steal $500 worth of stuff that he then sells for $100.
Stolen property is heavily discounted. Doesn't it make more sense to
just come up with the 10 bucks?

Woolbridge said that LEAP wants everything legalized, taxed and
regulated. "You've got to be able to get a pure product even if it's
bad for you," he said. That makes sense. If the government tries to
dilute the drugs, there will be a black market again. And who knows?
Maybe if heroin were legal, few people would buy it. After all, grain
alcohol is legal, but most people go for the softer stuff.

As Woolbridge told me about the positive response he gets as he
travels around preaching the virtues of legalization - more precisely,
he talks about the shortcomings of our present system - I wondered if
we are about to reach the second phase of this particular fight. That
would be getting the politicians on board.

The people are ahead of the pols on this. The people understand that
prohibition didn't work for booze and it's not working for these other
drugs. Truth is, we can't stop the supply unless we stop the demand,
and we can't stop the demand unless we're willing to put users in
prison - and we're not. At least, not all of them. Tom Noonan, the
lawyer and deputy mayor of Kirkwood, pleaded guilty Friday on two
counts of drug possession and one of attempted drug possession, but if
he successfully completes an anti-addiction program, the convictions
will be set aside. No criminal record whatsoever. That's the way
everybody should be treated.

Most people would agree, I think. We ought not put people in jail for
drug offenses.

But what politician dares speak the truth to this issue? I remember
when James Gierach ran in the Democratic gubernatorial primary in
Illinois in 1994. He was a straight arrow, a former assistant state's
attorney from Cook County. He had reached the same conclusion that
Woolbridge has reached. Party leaders treated Gierach as if he were a
nut. He was not even allowed to participate in the debates, so he
crashed them, and the papers, including this one, made his crusade
seem like a farce.

Even now, when I mention legalization to candidates, they say, "Can
you imagine what my opponents would do to me in a 30-second attack
commercial?"

So the politicians leave the truth to fellows like Woolbridge. He told
me he spends a lot of time on the road.