STATE'S ATTORNEY CRITICAL OF DRUG LAWS

WHITE RIVER JUNCTION -- Windsor County State's Attorney Robert Sand is
tired of wasting money and wasted lives.

Sand believes it's time for Vermont to start rethinking how it handles
illegal drugs.

Sand, who has been a prosecutor for 15 years, the last nine as the
head of law enforcement in Windsor County, says he favors the
decriminalization of all drugs and a health-approach to people who use
drugs.

"It's hard for me to see the vast resources expended on drug cases,"
Sand said, adding that he wished more resources would go into
prosecuting the physical and sexual abuse of children.

"Don't get me wrong," Sand said in an interview in his office
overlooking downtown White River Junction. "Drugs are bad for you,
they impair your judgment, they affect your memory, they reduce your
inhibitions in a dangerous way. They're not good for you."

But Sand said he doesn't think the role of government is to get people
to stop drinking alcohol or doing drugs.

It becomes an issue for government, he says, when people endanger
other people.

Sand believes deeply that the current system is not working and it
needs a radical rethinking.

"I actually reject the premise that it's radical. I'm not condoning
people breaking the law. My duty is to enforce the law but it's not my
role to just passively accept a situation that exacerbates public danger."

Sand admitted he was "painting with a broad brush," and said that by
no means does he have all the answers to a complicated issue.

Sand points to Prohibition in the 1920s and 1930s as the perfect
example of why restricting drug use won't work.

"Prohibition doesn't work; we should have learned that with alcohol,"
he said.

The county prosecutor said that after domestic violence cases, the
most serious crimes he sees occur during drug transactions, or people
committing crimes in order to get the money to pay for their addiction.

"Drug transactions cause the most serious crimes," he said, noting
that the disputes deal with money owed, drugs stolen and turf wars
between dealers.

"That's the violence of drugs," he said, not drug-induced crime. "We
don't see crazed crack heads or someone on crystal
(methamphetamines)," he said, referring to drug addictions more common
in the cities.

Sand says when he's talked to the county's major police departments
about his thinking about drugs, he first gets accused of being soft on
drugs.

But then Sand asks them to think "about the worst drug house in their
community, the worst drug dealer, the worst addict." And then he asks
them to envision the drug house painted and repaired, and giving
people legal drugs.

"No one will speak openly about it," he admitted.

That's when the police say he's got a point, he said. "It means less
violence. It means less addicts."

Sand is adamant that the drugs be regulated and not be available to
children, but he says one way of handling the sale of drugs is to
treat it much like alcohol.

Sand's father Leonard Sand is a federal judge in New York City, but he
declined to say what those father-son conversations on this issue have
been about.

Sand said he first talked about his ideas about taking a public health
approach to drug use to the Windsor Rotary Club. He's spoken to area
police departments and last month talked to the annual meeting for
volunteers with Windsor County Court Diversion.

He said last month one of the court diversion volunteers came up to
him and said that while she didn't agree with him, she was willing to
start having a serious discussion about it and she admitted she might
change her mind.

Sand is no stranger to being an advocate for change. He said an op-ed
piece he wrote in the Rutland Herald in January 2005 spawned
legislation that created Vermont's Sentencing Commission. Sand is one
of the commissioners on the study group, which is looking into how
justice is weighed in Vermont.

He worked closely with Sen. Richard Sears, D-Bennington, and Rep.
William Lippert, D-Hinesburg, who were the chairmen of the Senate and
House Judiciary committees to come up with the commission.

But Sand said so far he's stayed away from legislators in his
discussion.

"I don't know that I'm right, but we need to talk about it," Sand
said. 'We need to have an intelligent discussi