THROW IN TOWEL ON UNWINNABLE WAR ON DRUGS

When a young mother is killed trying to protect her 2-year-old son
from stray bullets, then it is easy to understand why some of us are
calling for the National Guard to help curb the violence.

So far, police haven't said what motivated two armed men to storm into
a barbershop in Sacramento, CA with guns blazing. The gunmen injured
six people and killed Monique Nelson, as she tried to strap her son
into a car seat and escape the violence.

But I'm willing to bet that drugs or gangs or both were
involved.

This is the kind of tragedy that makes James Gierach's blood boil. For
decades, Gierach has been on a crusade to end the nation's failed drug
war.

"Nearly any crisis you can name in America is made worse by the war on
drugs: gangs, drugs, prison, AIDS, guns, crime, taxes and deficits,"
Gierach argues.

"The reason that this drug war has lasted for 40 years is because both
the good guys and the bad guys are in favor of it," he said.

"The bad guys are in favor of prohibition because the only place you
can get it is from them. And the good guys are protecting the growing
prisons and subcontractors.

"You have to hire more judges, prosecutors, more probation officers,
more parole officers, more drug counselors, and more drug testing
labs," Gierach continued, ticking off a long list of industries that
benefit from the criminalization of drugs.

"So what we end up with are the good guys riding the drug war gravy
train same as the bad guys," he said.

After years of crying in the wilderness, Gierach believes he may
finally be making some inroads.

Gierach, a lawyer, is a board member for Law Enforcement Against
Prohibition or LEAP. The organization was founded by five law
enforcement officers in 2002, and now has 35,000 supporters worldwide.

On Tuesday, Gierach stopped by my office with Maria Lucia Karam, a
retired Brazilian Judge who is visiting Chicago.

Karam is also on LEAP's board. She said she has seen the devastating
impact of drug prohibition laws in her own country

For instance, in an effort to rid Rio's slums (called "favelas") of
drug traffickers, two weeks ago Brazil's governor called in the
military. As a result, about 50 people were killed in violent
skirmishes, according to Karam.

"People that live there were submitted to the violence of drug
traffickers. Now the people who are there are submitted to the
violence of tanks and soldiers with machine guns," she said.

During her 18 years on the bench, Karam said she did not lock up
people who used drugs because she believed to do so would have
violated the country's constitution.

"In a Democratic constitution, they assure you of freedom to do
everything unless you harm the rights of others, and having drugs for
personal use is something that harms only the person who has the
substance," she explained.

She now advocates for the legalization of the production, supply and
consumption of all drugs.

"Prohibition causes much more harm than the drugs themselves," Karam
argues. "In an illegal market, people need to use violence to develop
their business. So prohibition produces violence," she said.

"More and more people are going to prison because of these activities.
But the growth of the prison population is not the biggest problem.
The biggest problem is that people are dying because of the violence.
"

So while calling out the military to end drug- and gang-related
violence might sound like a good idea, Karam argues that as with any
war, there has to be an identified enemy.

"Not only do the people who committed the offense become the enemy,
but the people that look like the people who are committing the
offense," Karam said.

Tragically, the young mother who lost her life in Sacramento was
collateral damage in a war that America cannot win.