WE NEED A NEW DRUG POLICY

The War on Drugs Has Been a Colossal and Massively Expensive Failure.
So What Do We Do Next to Fight Illegal Drugs? Here's An Idea -- Try
Something Radically Different!

40 years ago this month, President Richard Nixon declared his "War on
Drugs." Now, 40 years later, can we honestly say we've got a handle on
the problem?

No, of course we can't. The drug scourge continues with its ever
increasing criminality and murderous violence. It heaps economic
hardships on families, communities and prison systems. Our decades'
long drug war gives off the stinking scent of failure and the
undeniable conclusion that the way we've tackled the problem so far
just isn't working.

So how long do we keep doing the same old things before we change
course? Isn't it time for a radical shift in strategy to try to lessen
the impact illegal drug trade has had on all of us?

I don't want to make this a political thing but after reading a couple
of recent reports (more on that below) I've come to the conclusion
that Richard Nixon may have had a sharper focus on how to handle the
drug problem than our current president.

You might think that the conservative Nixon, the president shamed by
Watergate, ordered up a callous punishment-oriented drug control
policy. But he didn't. Richard Nixon's 155 million dollar "War on
Drugs" budget (back in 1971) earmarked 2/3 of the money to go for
treatment and rehabilitation of drug addicts.

Somewhere along the line each succeeding president lost sight of the
idea that if you can cut back on the demand for illegal drugs you can
cripple the violent trade that sprouts up to supply it.

Today, despite President Obama's statement that "We have to think more
about drugs as a public-health problem," most of our anti-drug budget
goes toward interdiction efforts and punishing people. Two years ago,
the White House Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske claimed the "War on Drugs"
was over but it sure feels like we're still waging very expensive
combat against an elusive problem that just keeps growing.

So, back to the reports I read. The first was from an organization
called Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. LEAP is a group of current
and former front-line responders to the war on drugs. Its members are
police, prosecutors, judges, FBI and DEA agents, corrections
officials, military officers and others who know firsthand what it is
like to wage this never-ending war. They embrace the idea of radical
change, fully admitting that everything they have done in their law
enforcement career was for naught when it comes to stemming the tide
of the illegal drug trade and the abuse of those poisons. They
passionately urge lawmakers to embrace the idea of legalizing,
regulating and taxing these drugs.

I know it sounds revolutionary. But imagine the chilling effect it
would have on, say, the Mexican drug cartel. If there's no more profit
in smuggling drugs across the border into the United States, their
violent gangs would lose power and control. The tens of thousands of
drug-related murders each year would dwindle. America's tax coffers
would get much needed infusions. Drug addicts could get proper medical
help in weaning themselves off their drug of choice. Why, they might
even become contributing taxpaying citizens!

LEAP isn't the only group of knowledgeable people calling for this
radical move. Earlier this month, a group of internationally known
dignitaries including former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz,
former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Paul Volker, former presidents
of several countries and the U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan
endorsed the idea. In a report from their Global Commission on Drug
Policy they labeled the War on Drugs a failure and encouraged nations,
worldwide, to pursue the idea of legalization, regulation and taxation.

Hey, it worked with booze when we lifted prohibition back in the
1930s. Why wouldn't it work now?

I recently wrote in this space about how state lawmakers have
courageously stepped up to the plate to pass their own immigration
laws after Washington's monumental failure to act on that issue. Same
thing here with the nation's drug related problems. While Congress
wallows in budget battles and sex scandals, 16 states and the District
of Columbia have passed laws legalizing medicinal marijuana for those
with doctor's prescriptions. 14 states have decriminalized possession
of small amounts of pot.

For some inane reason the Obama Justice Department silently and
consistently continues to raid legal growers, registered medicinal
marijuana clinics and patients who find relief from marijuana. The DOJ
has conducted nearly 100 such raids in so-called "legal" states,
according to LEAP's report. That's about double the number of such
raids during the President George W. Bush years.

I don't know about you but I don't want my taxpayer dollars going for
police actions against legally-approved operations. What a waste of
money!

The day of total drug legalization will come -- just as it did with
alcohol. The question is: how many more multiple billions of dollars
will we spend before we finally see it's the logical way to go?