THE UNWINNABLE WAR

It's Tragic when an officer sworn to uphold the law turns to breaking it.
That might have happened in the case of Richard W. Parker, an agent of the
state Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement. He allegedly tried to distribute 26
pounds of cocaine worth $285,000. The San Juan Capistrano resident was
arrested in Pasadena as he collected $47,000 of what was believed to be a
payment. Another $100,000 was found in his vehicle.

It must be emphasized that Mr. Parker is innocent until proven guilty.

As the Register Reported, "After his arrest on Thursday, Parker denied any
knowledge of drugs... ." Also, most police officers are not involved in
such illegal activities.

But incidents such as this one raise a broader issue: the need to look at
alternatives to the costly "war" on drugs.

Because what is essentially a medical problem - abuse of drugs - has been
treated as a criminal problem, the "war" on drugs has caused collateral
damage throughout American society.

One example is the occasional corruption of police officers at all levels
of government.

"Of course it's a small number officers involved," Joseph McNamara told us;
he's a former chief of police in San Jose and now is a research fellow at
the Hoover Institution, where he's writing a book on police and drug
corruption. "But the sheer amount of money indicates there will always be
some cops who can't turn down the temptation. It's more money than they'll
ever accumulate working 30 years for their pension.

The profit markup can be 17,000 percent."

The problem is a political one, he said. "The politicians have declared
this war. The cops have been pushed into a war they can't win. What happens
to some officers is they see that it's hopeless, so they rationalize their
own behavior, saying, 'Why should "the enemy" get to keep all the money?'"

Another problem, Chief McNamara said, is the waste of public resources.
"Because of the drug hysteria, for most police agencies in the United
States it's their No. 1 priority.

Money that could protect women and children from violence went to arrest
more than 640,000 marijuana smokers last year." He estimates that for law
enforcement at the federal, state and local levels the cost of the "war" is
approximately $40 billion a year.

Another fallout from the "war" on drugs is more widespread than the
corruption of some officers. "Once you're in the mentality that it's a holy
war, then you'll get wholesale violations of rights," he said. "It has
corrupted the police ranks not only in the case you're talking about, but
it affects the oath police take to protect constitutional rights.

The drug laws are basically unenforceable because they involve voluntary
transactions. So police get involved in using informants and conducting
searches that aren't justified.

The war mentality creates this sense of crisis, because there are no
halfway measures in a war. You have to win. But you can't win this war."

Chief McNamara favors declaring victory in the "war" on drugs and shifting
the money from enforcing unenforceable drug laws to the medical treatment
of drug users.

That's a sensible prescription for restoring a sense of balance to law
enforcement in America and an essential step toward reducing the temptation
to corruption.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)