ON THE SHELVES, OFF THE STREETS

Arguments To Support Legalizing Marijuana are Stacking Up; The
Government Hasn't Even Taken A Step

When an indoor public smoking ban took effect in the Netherlands in
summer 2008, the worry wasn't so much for the one-third of Dutch
adults who smoke cigarettes. Bars and restaurants went smoke-free
without much problem.

A more intriguing concern was for the effect on the uniquely Dutch
institution of marijuana-selling "coffee shops." If a place calls
itself a coffee shop, that means three things: One, there is marijuana
and hash for sale; two, for the price of a coffee, you may sit and
smoke your own; and three, you will not be arrested.

The smoking ban does not apply to marijuana, but Dutch who smoke it
almost always mix it with tobacco. So while the pot is still allowed,
the tobacco in the joint isn't.

The Dutch classify marijuana as a "soft drug," which means that, like
alcohol and tobacco, it is best regulated through controlled
distribution. "Hard drugs," such as cocaine and heroin, remain
illegal. But personal drug use is more a health matter than an
arrestable offense.

Even the Amsterdam police want to keep the coffee shops open. "Why
push drug use underground?" asked Christian Koers, the police chief
responsible for Amsterdam's red-light district. "Then you cannot
control it, and it becomes more popular and more dangerous. "

Policy Shift

This idea - that drugs are both enjoyable and dangerous and thus
better regulated than prohibited by government and sold by criminals -
seems common-sense enough, even in America. Until now, the main
opposition to a state's right to legalize marijuana has been the
federal government. But recently, in a major policy shift, the U.S.
Justice Department instructed federal prosecutors not to focus on
"individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance
with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana."

In a memo explaining the new guidelines, Deputy Attorney General David
Ogden emphasized that the department is not ending the war on drugs.
But it's the first time the federal government has paused and taken a
small step back. Though the change will affect few, at least in some
states doctors and terminal cancer patients should no longer fear
federal arrest.

Thirteen U.S. states have legalized medicinal marijuana, and Wisconsin
recently jumped on the bandwagon. "It's pretty hard to say that a
doctor actually thinks marijuana would be helpful and the doctor can't
prescribe it, whereas (he) could prescribe morphine," said Gov. Jim
Doyle. "We prescribe much more dangerous drugs."

Certainly, the legalization of medicinal marijuana has not always been
an unalloyed success. But it is refreshing to see states and cities
debating drug policy and regulation. And as that happens, we should
notice how much easier it is to close a licensed store than an illegal
drug corner.

Three years before I became a Baltimore police officer in 1999, I
started my research with the Amsterdam police. The Dutch approach
toward drugs, by and large, works. Without declaring a war,
authorities there have managed to lower addiction rates, limit use and
save lives. The United States, by contrast, spends $50 billion a year
on its war on drugs and leads the world in drug use, with millions of
Americans using marijuana, cocaine and ecstasy.

Drug Corners

Clearly, what we're doing doesn't work.

The real drug problem, along with addictive heroin and crystal meth,
is illegal public dealing. When a police car pulls up to a drug
corner, the corner pulls back. Dealers, friends, addicts and lookouts
walk away.

In Amsterdam, the red-light district is the oldest and most notorious
neighborhood featuring alleys lined with legal prostitutes, bars, porn
stores and coffee shops. In 2008, I visited the local police station
and asked about the neighborhood's problems. I laughed when I heard
that dealers of fake drugs were the biggest police issue.

The results are telling. In America, 37 percent of adults have tried
marijuana; in the Netherlands the figure is 17 percent. Heroin usage
rates are three times higher in the United States than in the
Netherlands. Crystal meth, so destructive here, is almost nonexistent
there. By any standard - drug usage rates, addiction, homicides,
incarceration and dollars spent - America has lost the war on drugs.

And just as escalating the drug war in the past three decades hasn't
caused a decrease in supply and demand, there's no reason to believe
that regulating drugs instead of outlawing them would cause an
increase. If it did, why are drug-usage rates in the Netherlands
lower? People start and stop taking drugs for many reasons, but the
law seems to be pretty low on the list.

Nobody wants a drug free-for-all; but, in fact, that's what we have in
many communities. What we need is regulation. Distribution without
regulation equals criminals and chaos - what police see every day.
People will buy drugs because they want to get high, and the question
is only how and where they will buy them.

History provides some lessons. The 21st Amendment ending Prohibition
did not force anybody to drink or any city to license saloons. In
1933, after the failure to ban alcohol, the feds simply got out of the
game. Today, they should do the same - and the Justice Department took
that very small step in the right direction.

Leave It To States

Without federal control, states, cities and counties would be free to
bar or regulate drugs as they saw fit. Just as with alcohol and
tobacco regulation, one size does not fit all; we would see local
solutions to local problems.

Even without federal pressure, most states and cities would
undoubtedly start by maintaining the status quo against drugs. In
these cases, police with or without federal assistance should focus on
reducing violence by pushing the drug trade off the streets. An effort
to shift the nature of the illegal trade is different than declaring a
war on drugs.

Regulating and controlling distribution is far more effective at
clearing the corners of drug dealers than any SWAT crackdown. One can
easily imagine that in some cities - San Francisco, Portland and
Seattle come to mind - alternatives to arrest and incarceration could
be tried. They could learn from the experience of the Dutch, and we
could all learn from their successes and failures.

Regulation is hard work, but it's not a war. And it sure beats herding
junkies.