END THE WAR ON DRUGS

As a retired lieutenant with 36 years of service in the Denver Police
Department, I applaud the TRIDENT members in their recent arrests of
drug dealers in the Lazy F Trailer Park. However, this most recent
two-month investigation follows numerous other similar
investigations. On Sept. 29, the Aspen Daily News reported multiple
arrests after a 10-month investigation. There's more of the same
throughout the past several years; you'd imagine that the population
of drug dealers would be dried up by now.

But it the population of drug dealers hasn't and never will be dried
up. This same situation existed during a time period often referred
to as "The Noble Experiment:" the age of alcohol prohibition.

No matter how hard we tried in the Denver Police Department, no
matter how hard members of the Two Rivers Enforcement Team (TRIDENT)
try, drugs will never go away. Drug dealers, however, can be
practically eliminated.

The modern "War on Drugs" has been going on for 36 years. In that
short period, America has spent over $1 trillion fighting for the
effort to be "drug-free." State budgets have become a major dilemma
for legislators because of the concern over the prison system budget,
the budget to cover drug interdiction efforts and the budget to
handle all of the court costs. Just look at the gigantic increase
that Colorado state college students encountered recently. The
legislators had to bump the tuition cost up -- the criminal justice
budget is precious. What politician could stand up to the next
election's onslaught if he has to cut the criminal justice budget? So
this crusade continues, never ending, and without challenge to its efficacy.

Another consequence of America's drug war is our prison system,
which, since 1980, has exploded to become the world's largest. We
have 2.4 million people behind bars and the number keeps climbing.
Before the war on drugs, this was a static number of less than a
million. During the opening salvoes of the drug war, policy makers
opted for mandatory minimum sentencing as a way to show people how
illegal drug use could impact them. Millions have served time under
these Draconian laws with no change in drug use. Consider the
hundreds of thousands of people that are released from jail and
prison every year. These people have no credit and face huge hurdles
to become a part of society. One bad policy begets many unintended
consequences; wasted resources tops the list.

The consequence that I hate most about the war on drugs is how it put
me, my fellow officers and these brave souls of TRIDENT at risk. The
policy of drug prohibition sends law enforcement out to do battle
with criminals, powerful drug cartels and terrorist regimes. Consider
the killing of six Mexican police by warring drug gangs two weeks ago
in central Mexico; thousands have died in the name of a "drug-free" America.

In addition, the huge lure of money is always there, either through
bribes by drug dealers, or during busts where piles of money are
lying around. Corruption of law enforcement was at its highest during
alcohol prohibition and we see it now with drug prohibition.

For all of these reasons, I have joined Law Enforcement Against
Prohibition, an organization of cops, judges, prosecutors and others
in the criminal justice system, as well as concerned citizens, who
believe the war on drugs is a calamitous public policy failure. We
don't endorse drug use -- people should stay away from drugs. Nor do
we believe that legalization will cure the drug abuse problem in
America. It will, however, greatly reduce crime, violence, disease
and death. It will end the waste of resources and bring balance to
budgets. It will use the proper tool of the public health system to
handle drug problems in society.

I've been accused of "surrendering" by saying we should legalize
drugs. Nonsense, I want to win! I want to get drug dealers off our
streets, to take this commodity away from the terrorists that
threaten our country, to end the Colombian civil war that cocaine
fuels and to eradicate the evil cartels that wield so much power in
Latin America. End the crusade. Tell our politicians to not only be
tough on crime, but be smart about drug policy.