TIME TO SURRENDER

When I joined the Los Angeles Police Department in 1980, I was a strong
supporter of the notion that illegal drugs should stay that way and that
the enforcement of drug laws should be a top priority.

But my views quickly changed once I hit the streets. During my first months
on patrol, after handling hundreds of drug calls and arresting scores of
people for possessing various illegal substances, I began to doubt what my
peers and I were doing.

I saw violent criminals walking the streets because the jail space they
rightfully deserved was occupied by nonviolent drug offenders. When we
carted off small-time drug dealers to prison, I saw other sellers quickly
step in to fill the void.

I started to view most people involved with drugs either as broken souls
who made self-destructive choices or as harmless people who indulged their
appetites in moderation -- not as crooks who needed to be punished.

By the end of my tenure with the LAPD, I came to believe that marijuana --
a drug I had never seen anyone overdose on or influence anyone to do
anything more violent than attack a bag of potato chips -- should be legalized.

I held a bifurcated stance toward illicit drugs -- legalize pot but
strictly enforce existing laws against the rest of the stuff -- through my
time with the Redmond (Wash.) Police Department and into my graduate studies.

As the years passed, however, I saw a nation fighting harder, devoting more
money and jailing increasing numbers of individuals -- all the while
falling further behind in the war on drugs.

The price of the drugs didn't rise with increased interdiction, usage rates
didn't fall, and the number of lives damaged or destroyed by chronic use,
overdose and drug-related criminal activity mounted. No matter how much I
disliked the idea, I became convinced the United States should legalize
illicit drugs.

Even if more people do take drugs in the wake of legalization, we would
live in a society where citizens suffer far less from the predatory crimes
spawned by the illicit drug trade. In the end, we cannot protect free
adults from their own poor choices, and we should not use the force of law
to try.

Klinger is professor of criminology at the University of Missouri.
Distributed by KRT News Service.