MAYBE LEGALIZING DRUGS WOULD BE BEST TACTIC

Re: "Mexico can't win drug war without U.S." (editorial, 4-21).

A colloquial definition of insanity is "doing the same thing over and
over again, expecting a different result." We've been throwing
billions upon billions of dollars and hundreds of law enforcement and
military lives at the drug problem for decades. At what point to do we
take a breath and rethink our strategy?

It is an immutable fact that humans will engage in certain behaviors
for as long as they walk the Earth. It has been going on since the
first hominid ate a piece of overripe, fermenting fruit and got high
from the alcohol content.

Consumption of substances to alter our mental and/or physical states
will never stop, at least not until medical science finds some
permanent method, short of lobotomy, to do so. Even then it will have
to be a voluntary alteration.

Whether by ingesting plant matter, fermented or distilled drink or
some laboratory concoction, humans will intoxicate themselves. We've
had dramatic proof of what results from attempting to "prohibit" the
use of alcohol: an era of gang violence, government corruption and
numerous deaths caused by adulterated product.

So what do we do about it? I submit it is time to give serious thought
to legalization.

I do not come to this opinion lightly. In the course of my law
enforcement career, I made hundreds of drug arrests. I worked
undercover buying drugs. I fully understand the complex nature of what
I'm suggesting. Without question, there are legitimate, cogent
arguments to be made against legalization. It would be a complicated,
problematic thing.

It would, however, wipe out, literally overnight, the illicit drug
trade and with it the violent struggle for turf and profit. It would
have international and national security benefits by undermining one
of the main sources of funding for Middle Eastern terrorists, that
being the heroin trade. It would free up huge amounts of money for
anti-drug education, job creation and urban reconstruction.

It would allow for the reallocation of law enforcement personnel to
tasks such as actually and effectively securing our borders, pursuing
the illicit traffic in weapons and finally giving proper attention to
securing our ports and other vulnerable targets.

It would provide a new source of tax revenue. It would, I believe,
dramatically reduce crimes such as residential burglary, the vast
majority of which are committed by dopers supporting their habits.

Such a change in policy would require an increased attention to, and
harsh punishment of, such offenses as driving while intoxicated. Only
in recent years has this begun to be treated as the scourge on society
it so clearly is.

One obvious and legitimate argument against drug legalization is the
addition of yet more intoxicants to a society already plagued with the
problems of inappropriate use of alcohol, not to mention the poisonous
effects of tobacco use. But they are already here: always have been,
always will be.

Drug use will not go away any more than prostitution will go away any
more than third-pound cheeseburgers with extra bacon will go away.

What we've been doing isn't working. It's time to try something
else.

MacKenzie Allen

MacKenzie Allen of Tacoma is a retired law enforcement
officer.