SMALL 'C' CONSERVATIVES SHOULD END THE WAR ON DRUGS

Scanning coverage of Conrad Black's release from prison on bail, I was
amused (sort of) by a reporter's describing Mr. Black as a "one-time
conservative." This assessment was based on Mr. Black's taking up the
cause of prison and drug-law reform during his incarceration, and says
more about the writer's superficial, stereotyped perceptions of
"conservatism" than about Mr. Black's politics.

Perspectives broadened, mind focused by circumstances, Mr. Black
lobbed withering and well-deserved broadsides from behind bars at the
United States justice system, which he accurately describes as
"putrefied," "'a carceral state' that imprisons eight to 12 times more
people per capita than the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France,
Germany or Japan..."

"From my cell I scent the reeking soul of U.S. justice," Mr. Black
proclaimed in a 2008 letter to the London Sunday Times, asserting that
America's justice and penal systems are in critical condition, largely
because of the so-called "war on drugs," especially marijuana, which
can only be regarded by thinking persons - including and especially
conservatives - as hysterical, bordering on the psychotic.

Mr. Black picked up the thread last weekend in a National Post op-ed
explaining: "I would not meet the usual definition of a socialist,"
but many [convicts] "are victims of legal and social injustice,
inadequately provided for by the public assistance system, and
over-prosecuted and vengefully sentenced."

Mr. Black characterizes "the entire 'war on drugs'" as dismal failure,
"a trillion taxpayers' dollars squandered... one million small fry
imprisoned at a cost of $50 billion a year"... "with absurd sentences,
(including 20 years for marijuana offences, although 42 per cent of
Americans have used marijuana and it is the greatest cash crop in
California.)... targeted substances are more available and of better
quality than ever, while producing countries such as Colombia and
Mexico are in a state of civil war."

A lifelong conservative, I concur with that assessment
unreservedly.

I'm certain many other conservatives can as well. For example, Law
Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) is a 13,000-member drug policy
reform organization founded in 2002 for police officers, judges,
corrections officers, and other justice system personnel who, having
witnessed horrors and injustices fighting on the front lines in the
"war on drugs," believe current policies have failed at effectively
addressing problems of drug abuse, worsened rather than alleviated
juvenile drug use, addiction, and crime caused by the criminal black
market in drugs, contending that regulation of consensual adult use
would be more ethical and less harmful than prohibition - something we
should've learned from failed experiments with alcohol prohibition in
the 1920s and '30s.

Canada is descending into the same dysfunctional dynamic, recent
statistics showing marijuana charges account for 72 per cent of drug
prosecutions on this side of the border, with governments spending a
reported $1 billion annually to battle the drug trade - 70 per cent of
that on marijuana. And for what? Almost all of pot's negative social
effects have been caused and created by the government's ineffectual
and futile prohibition efforts that arbitrarily criminalize
production, distribution, and use.

It's 74 years since the U.S criminalized marijuana, and 40 years since
U.S. President Richard Nixon declared his "War on Drugs," Canada
following suit. The result? Miserable and absurdly expensive failure
in money squandered and lives ruined. The UN's 2007 World Drug Report
found Canadians and Americans have the highest cannabis use rates
among developed nations - 16.8 per cent and 12.6 per cent
respectively. According to the Canadian Addiction Survey, 50 per cent
of Canadians aged 44 to 54 have used pot.

The Harper government's orientation on this issue is perversely
wrongheaded. After taking office, the Conservatives killed a Liberal
bill to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana, and prosecutions for
possession increased by up to one-third in several Canadian cities. A
Senate report noted that annually 30,000 Canadians are charged with
simple possession of marijuana, three-quarters of whom emerge from the
process with criminal records. Now THERE's legitimate cause for moral
outrage!

Marijuana isn't a drug that causes criminality. Thousands of Canadians
are getting criminal records that can affect future employment
prospects and prevent them from traveling to other countries for
indulging in a victimless, harmless activity.

This is barking madness. Research has proved that compared with legal
drugs such as tobacco and alcohol, marijuana is much less addictive -
if addictive at all - with no danger of death from overdose. The
canard that it's a "gateway" drug that leads users to try harder drugs
is ideologically-driven, insupportable bunkum and discredited in
scientific literature, which shows only one in nine marijuana users
goes on to try cocaine, and just one in 20 to experiment with heroin.

Congratulations to Conrad Black on his bail release pending appeal of
his conviction, and on his future endeavors as a penal and drug law
reform crusader - a cause conservatives should get behind.