B-N OFFICIALS AGAINST DRUG LEGALIZATION

A sampling of Twin City law enforcement officials, students and drug
specialists indicates that local views on the legalization of drugs largely
reflect national surveys that show widespread support for existing laws.

However, there is substantial minority support nationwide for relaxing drug
laws, especially for marijuana. In most surveys, about 20 percent favor
legalizing cocaine and heroin, and about 30 percent would allow marijuana to
be freely smoked.

Students tend to have the most lenient attitudes toward drugs among Twin
City residents.

"Legalizing is kind of hasty," Illinois State University student Jeff
Johnson said. "We could decrease the criminalization of it (marijuana) or
treat it more like alcohol and regulate it somehow."

ISU student Jay Deane supports legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes,
but not for recreational use.

Other students staunchly opposed legalization.

"Marijuana is a building-block drug," said Ken Adair. "If you legalize it,
it could lead to bigger drugs."

"I'm opposed to it (legalization) because more people will start using them.
The problem will keep going," Heather Legue said.

Alan Markwood, prevention projects coordinator for Chestnut Health Systems
in Bloomington, agreed that legalizing drugs would be a dangerous move. He
disputes pro-legalization claims that drugs such as marijuana -- which has
been at the forefront of efforts to decriminalize drug use -- are not
addictive or harmful.

He stressed that marijuana is being produced with more potency than ever
before and younger children are using it, creating new developmental
problems.

Normal Police Chief Walt Clark pointed to other problems stemming from drug
use, such as suicide and neglect of children. He also noted that burglaries,
retail thefts and other crimes frequently are motivated by a desire to
obtain money for drugs.

"My contention has always been that we have enough problems with alcohol. We
certainly don't need additional problems by legalizing drugs," Clark said.

Clark also expressed doubts that legalizing drugs would reduce serious crime
by putting drug dealers out of business. Rather than selling drugs, they'd
probably just take up another line of criminal activity, he said.

As for current crimes, Circuit Judge G. Michael Prall said an extremely high
percentage are either directly or indirectly linked to drugs. Dealing with
such offenders is a difficult task that often requires a creative approach.

"I think you have to do a lot of thinking about ways to get people to
comply," he said. "It takes a lot of time and effort."

Over the past 20 years, penalties for drug offenses have increased
substantially. Prall said he's most concerned about mandatory minimum prison
sentences that limit judges' options.

He noted that some alternative programs -- such as drug courts -- that
emphasize a treatment approach have had success. But they require an
investment in more judges, more probation officers and other resources to
ensure offenders are closely monitored. There is no easy answer.

"It's just such a complex problem and a difficult problem. Probably the
toughest problem the criminal justice system faces is how to deal with drug-
and alcohol-driven crimes," Prall said.