DECRIMINALIZE DRUG USE, VENTURA SAYS IN NEW BOOK

Minnesota governor says U.S. war on narcotics a failure

Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura says the U.S. government should decriminalize
illicit drug use in the wake of its failed war on drugs.

In a new book, the former professional wrestler says the government is
wasting money with its determined battle against drug barons and in
imprisoning drug abusers. Instead, he says the government should regulate
drugs and treat addicts as ill people in need of medical treatment rather
than regard them as criminals.

"The war on drugs is political. The government thinks it needs to have a
'common enemy' to rally the public and keep the public on its side," Mr.
Ventura says in Do I Stand Alone? Instead of fighting the illegal trade in
drugs, he argues the U.S. should regulate it. "Just imagine if we could find
some way for addicts to get their drugs cheaply, safely and legally," he
says. "The bottom would drop out of the illegal-drug market. I'd be willing
to bet if we did that, we'd see a huge drop in organized and violent crime."

At the same time, he avoids calling for outright legalization of drugs with
the exception of marijuana, a drug that he has admitted to using himself.

"I have smoked a joint, and there's nothing wrong with that," he said during
an interview with Playboy magazine last year. "That's one of the biggest
atrocities going on right now: marijuana. I have done far stupider things on
alcohol. Give someone a Hendrix tape and a joint and stick him in the
corner, and he's happy."

In the book, published this month, Mr. Ventura says the U.S. war on
narcotics is a "failure" and the country has not learned from Prohibition
that making something illegal does not curb its use. He says making drugs
illegal encourages crime.

While calling for marijuana to be legalized, the candid and normally
outspoken governor walks a careful line discussing such hard drugs as
cocaine. He shies away from calling on those drugs to be made legal, but
says people should not be punished for using them. "Now, even in the
Netherlands, the harder drugs are illegal, and rightly so. I wouldn't
advocate making things like heroin and cocaine legal. But at the same time,
it doesn't make sense for us to criminally prosecute people just for using
them," he says.

"I think we need to work on decriminalizing drug abuse in this country. The
decision to use drugs in the first place is pure stupidity, and we can't
make stupid decisions against the law. First of all, it's impossible, and
second, a free society has no business doing that," he says.

"Nobody's been able to explain to me why we waste prison cells on drug
addicts. Drug addiction is a consensual crime; it's a crime against
oneself."

Why are we locking up addicts? "To protect them from themselves?" he says.
"Drug addiction is a health problem; it should be treated medically, not
criminally. If we treated it that way, it would provide a tremendous amount
of relief to our prison systems. Not only that, but many of the users could
be paying taxes while they were in outpatient treatment instead of being a
burden to the rest of us taxpayers," he says.

He criticizes the U.S. for sending people and money into Colombia. The U.S.
recently bolstered the antidrug effort there with $1.3 billion in aid. Mr.
Ventura said the U.S. has "no business going into someone else's country."

Politicians from Colombia will be in Ottawa broaching the prospect of
legalizing narcotics. In a departure from the Columbian government's
official stance, the representatives will be discussing the prospect with
other countries in North and South America during a forum in this city next
March.

Legalization, a Colombian congressman told forum organizers, could deprive
drug traffickers of a key motive they have in fueling the business:
lucrative profits.