Reporter, author fights to stop the war on drugs.

Wall Street reporter Dan Baum argues the wasted time and
insanity of the U.S. war on drugs is also an issue for Canada.

By Brian Dryden

Who could be against the war on drugs?

A lot of people would be if they bother to read Smoke and
Mirrors: The War on Drugs and The Politics of Failure, a
captivating examination of what years of battling illicit use
in the U.S. by calling in the cops has wrought.

And since Canada, for the most part, follows in America's
footsteps when it comes to personal use of some substances a
criminal offence, the lessons learned from what former Wall
Street Journal reporter Dan Baum argues is a waste of time and
resources ring true for Canada as well.

At the outset of the book that delves into the history of the
U.S. declared drug war dating back to former president
Richard Nixon's law and order days Baum declares Smoke and
Mirrors is not an outright clarion call for legalization of all
drugs. He claims to want the reader to draw their (sic) own
conclusions. But what he describes between the covers leaves
nodoubt which side of the legalization fence the writer falls.

Baum makes a strong case for backing away from the existing
regime of classifying drugs like marijuana, cocaine and heroin
illegal while quarts of booze are sold in governmentrun
stores. It's a straight forward matter of accessing (sic) the
costs and benefits of continuing the battle, according to Baum.

And the author's ultimate point that the war on drugs is not
a war on evil substances as much as a war on the rights of a
nation's citizens is a view that is gaining wider acceptance
across the political spectrum. And not just among those who are
angling to justify their own drug habits.

>From ultra conservatives like William F. Buckley Jr. to former
Surgeon General Joyce Elders, there is a growing tide of people
who accept the war's failure.

Unfortunately, as Elder's firing from the U.S. cabinet attests,
and Baum illustrates through numerous examples that rethinking
policy has so far failed to make its way into what is allowable
in mainstream debate.

What the drug war in the U.S. has accomplished is plenty,
according to Baum. However, none of the accomplishments have
anything to do with eradicating drug use. Instead they have
everything to do with pumping money into police departments (by
allowing them to share in the profits from seized assets in
drug cases), making prison construction a growth industry,
stripping away rights of citizens, and an attack on poor
neighbourhoods.

As Baum points out, the glory days of Nancy Reagan's "Just say
no" campaign, the introduction of ever stiffer penalties and
jail sentences for drug possession in the United States was a
turning point in the history of American prisons.

"The United States of America quietly passed a milestone in
1986. Eightyfour per cent white and 12 per cent black, the
nation now held more black than white people in prison," Baum
notes.

With the media doing its part with story after story about
illicit drugrelated deaths, despite the fact "legal" drugs
like alcohol kill far more a year, Baum argues in Smoke and
Mirrors the war on drugs has perverted reason and played a
major part in perpetuating inequality in the U.S. while
focusing resources on questionable priorities.

Mandatory minimum sentences for drug cases has filled the
jails, and a disproportionate percentage of those sitting in
the jail cells are minorities.

"The definition of insanity is doing the same old thing over
and over again and expecting a different result," Baum quotes
U.S. presidential candidate Bill Clinton as saying back in
19992.

Smoke and Mirrors argues the insanity is still going on, and
won't end until calling in the cops is a least resort, not the
only approach.

Alan Randell
1821 Knutsford Place, Victoria BC Canada V8N 6E3
Email: arandell@islandnet.com Home: 2507210356 Work: 2509522926