PROHIBITION: FLOP WITH BOOZE, DOPE

Nearly a century ago, America's historic attempt to ban alcohol was a
monumental failure. Prohibition turned millions of Americans into
criminals because they visited illegal "speakeasies" for drinks or
bought furtive bottles from bootleggers. It created the Mafia as
smuggler gangs fought each other over lucrative hooch-hauling. It
filled prisons with harmless offenders. It corrupted police and courts
as enforcers took payoffs to ignore the booze traffic. Prohibition
finally was abandoned as a wasteful mistake.

Today, the "war on drugs" fills the same role that Prohibition did.
Billions of taxpayer dollars are wasted on undercover police work and
overcrowded prisons jammed with petty, pathetic users. Many American
families are hurt as youths are jailed, their futures wrecked. The
endless crackdown achieves little, because the narcotics flow doesn't
diminish.

Now a worldwide panel of leaders has concluded: "The global war on
drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and
societies around the world." Their report says it's time to
decriminalize narcotics of all types, which would remove the traffic
from gangster hands. Dope should be regarded as a health problem, not
a crime problem.

The Global Commission on Drug Policy is led by former U.S. Secretary
of State George Schultz, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Anan,
former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, Greek Prime Minister
George Papandreou, a former U.N. human rights commissioner and various
other world figures such as former presidents of Brazil, Mexico,
Colombia and Switzerland.

Their report says a half-century of intensive policing has
accomplished nothing. "The global scale of illegal drug markets --
largely controlled by organized crime -- has grown dramatically over
this period." The crackdown spawns ever-worse violence, such as in
Mexico where 36,000 people have been killed in narcotics fighting since 2006.

Nations should begin experimenting with plans that end criminal
penalties and offer medical care to addicts, the report says. It concludes:

"Political leaders and public figures should have the courage to
articulate publicly what many of them acknowledge privately: that the
evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that repressive strategies will
not solve the drug problem, and that the war on drugs has not been,
and cannot be, won."

Long ago, America acknowledged that prohibition of alcohol was a
doomed error. Now it's time to acknowledge the same with regard to
prohibition of dope.