"AN ENDLESS WAR WITH NO WINNERS"

This may sound cold, but I can't dredge up a bit of sympathy for a drug
dealer who was killed during a scuffle with police officers.

I'm only sorry that Gregory Riley, 31, didn't get help for his drug
addiction. Maybe then he would not have been selling drugs near the 4300
block of West Adams, as police allege.

Maybe he would have had the presence of mind to stop when police officers
ordered him to stop. Maybe officers would not have had to put a foot on
his neck and in his back to get handcuffs on him.

Regardless of how this matter is resolved, Riley's death shows how
taxpayers can end up paying again and again for America's futile war on drugs.

We pay for the skyrocketing costs of building prisons, hiring police
officers, judges and other criminal justice officials, as well as for the
settlements in brutality cases arising out of drug arrests.

It is an endless cycle because we are engaged in a war with a declared
enemy--the drug dealers and users--yet we aren't quite sure how that enemy
ought to be treated.

I see a dangerous backlash coming. Here's why:

According to police, Riley was seen selling dope on the street. He ran
when police officers showed up and refused to stop running. A bag of
cocaine was found at the scene and on his body. An autopsy found another
bag of cocaine in his stomach, and the Cook County medical examiner's
office has determined that Riley died of asphyxiation. The plainsclothes
cops involved in the incident have been put on administrative leave.

Suddenly, cops are looking like the enemy. Now when police officers have
to think about whether or not they should chase after a drug dealer because
they might be accused of brutality should the drug dealer die, I think a
lot of good police officers will say to heck with it.

When I read that Riley's cousin told a reporter there might be a lawsuit, I
wondered how in the world did we end up in this pitiful state.

Riley was a true loser if there ever was one. He pleaded guilty to
aggravated robbery in 1994 and was sentenced to five years in prison. He
also was convicted of drug offenses in 1992 and 1997.

Someone in his family had to know that if he didn't get off drugs he was
going to turn up dead.

While there are legitimate concerns about police actions in the deaths of
computer analyst LaTanya Haggerty and Northwestern University student
Robert Russ, both of whom were killed during what should have been routine
traffic stops, how restrained do police have to be when drug dealers resist
arrest?

I have to ask: Is the price we are all paying to keep people from inhaling
and shotting up worth it?

Attorney James E. Gierach, a relentless advocate for drug policy reform,
says no. In 1992, Gierach ran for Cook County state's attorney in the
Democratic primary. Two years later, he ran for governor on the platform
of drug policy reform.

"The war on drugs drives the business. It makes drugs the most valuable
commodity on the face of the earth," he said.

According to Gierach, we need to make drugs available to people who are
addicted to them under the auspices of medical authorities.

His ideas may seem radical, but Switzerland recently declared its
experiment with state-distributed heroin a success, claiming the program
has slashed crime and disease associated with hard-core drug addiction.

"We need to fight the problems of guns and gangs by taking away the
business that enables them to afford both," Gierach said. "The bottom line
is we need to change the economics that drives the drug business and the
drug war against it."

I don't agree with all of Gierach's views on this topic. But one thing is
certain. People like Riley aren't the only casualties of the drug war. We
all are.