DRUG WAR IS WORKING BACKWARDS

FOR THE RECORD

According to new U.S. Forest Service reports, marijuana seizures in
national forests are at near-record levels. In 1999, North Carolina ranked
fourth in marijuana production nationwide. Parts of Western North Carolina
once known for moonshine production under alcohol prohibition are now home
to large-scale marijuana growing operations. Severe penalties are no match
for the financial incentives created by marijuana prohibition.

Marijuana prohibition is an integral part of the larger drug war. In 1999,
46 percent of the 1,532,200 total arrests nationwide for drug violations
were for marijuana, 620,541 for possession alone. Proponents of marijuana
prohibition claim that eradication efforts both fight crime and protect
children from drugs. Unfortunately, the $18 billion drug war does neither.

When the supply of illegal drugs is successfully limited while demand
remains constant, drug trafficking becomes more profitable. The obscene
profits to be made guarantee replacement dealers. In the short-term, drug
prices are higher, which is not necessarily a good thing. For addictive
drugs like heroin, a spike in prices means desperate addicts increase
criminal activity to feed desperate habits. Those who get caught are placed
in prisons that serve to transmit violent habits and values.

Just as alcohol prohibition once did, the drug war fuels crime. Prohibition
was repealed in 1933 amidst concerns that the thriving black market was not
only financing organized crime, but also exposing minors to liquor at
levels previously unheard of. The infamous mobsters of the '20s and '30s
did not ID customers for age, nor did they add warning labels to
potentially lethal bottles of bathtub gin.

These days protections are in place to keep liquor out of the hands of
children. No such protections exist when it comes to popular illicit drugs.
The Monitoring the Future Survey, an ongoing study of the behaviors,
attitudes, and values of young Americans, reports that for every year from
1975 to 1999, at least 82 percent of high school seniors surveyed found
marijuana "fairly easy" or "very easy" to obtain. In 1999, a whopping 89
percent of high school seniors reported that marijuana was fairly or very
easy to obtain.

Drug policies designed to protect children have given rise to a
youth-oriented black market in which marijuana, the most popular illicit
drug, is readily available, despite its illegality. Fortunately, marijuana
is relatively benign compared to alcohol, which continues to be the most
popular recreational drug. According to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, 19,515 Americans died of alcohol-induced deaths in 1998.

Although marijuana is relatively harmless, marijuana prohibition is deadly.
Our misguided drug policy actually provides children a gateway. While there
is nothing inherent in marijuana that compels users to try drugs like
heroin, its black-market status puts users in contact with criminals who
push them.

As long as marijuana remains illegal, the established criminal distribution
network will ensure that kids are exposed to every poison concocted by
pushers. Sensible regulation is desperately needed to undermine the
volatile black market and restrict access to drugs. As counterintuitive as
it may seem, replacing marijuana prohibition with regulation would
ultimately do a better job protecting children from drugs.

Granted, such a pragmatic approach is unlikely to gain widespread political
support anytime soon. Far too much political capital has been invested in
the failed drug war. Nonetheless, reform is on the horizon. In five out of
six states where drug policy issues were on the ballot in the recent
election, voters decided in favor of major change regarding treatment
instead of prison for non-violent offenders; medical marijuana for patients
when recommended by a doctor; and civil asset forfeiture law reform. When
it comes to drug policy, the people are way ahead of the politicians.