WE MUST CHANGE APPROACH TO ILLEGAL DRUGS

Two interesting milestones were recorded recently.

Forty years ago, on June 17, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon
declared drug abuse in the United States as "Public Enemy No. 1,"
launching the nation's four-decade "war on drugs" that has cost the
country about $1 trillion -- with little success shown for that investment.

Illegal drugs are still widely available, and it's estimated that the
global industry of producing and distributing them is now a $320
billion per year operation. It's estimated that here in the United
States, 25 million Americans use illegal drugs.

This past Friday, a new state law was enacted decriminalizing
marijuana. Possession of the drug is still illegal, but having less
than one-half an ounce is no longer a crime subject to a prison
sentence. It's now an infraction carrying a $150 fine for the first
offense, $200 to $500 for subsequent offenses.

In the national war on drugs campaign, over the past 40 years, $121
billion has been spent arresting 37 million nonviolent drug offenders
- -- 10 million of them for possession of marijuana.

Illegal drug abuse is a problem; there is no denying that. It is
destructive in human costs more than monetarily.

Move makes sense

Decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana -- although
we remain concerned that it sends a wrong message, that it's no big
deal -- was an appropriate course of action for the state. Saddling
someone, especially a young person, with a criminal record for the
offense is also destructive in human costs. But simply dismissing it
with a "parking ticket" is not an answer, either.

Clearly the war on drugs has failed -- or at least the way in which
it has been pursued these past 40 years. We should not and cannot
simply ignore it or give up the fight, but obviously we must find a
new way of attacking the problem.

After 40 years, it should be clear to everyone that what we have been
doing isn't working. But the cost of doing nothing is higher.