WAR ON DRUGS IS A LOSING BATTLE, OVER AND OVER AGAIN

A 40-year war in which the number of victims and the amount of money
spent increase each year and where there is no end in sight can only
be viewed as a failure.

Forty years ago in June, President Richard Nixon declared a "war on drugs."

Today, we live with the consequences of the failed policies that war
has generated -- policies that have imprisoned millions, destroyed
families and entire communities and have done nothing to stem drug addiction.

Drug offenses are the No. 1 crime for which Montanans are convicted,
and marijuana is far and away the drug most often involved in those
convictions.

About one-third of Montana drug convictions result in prison time,
costing taxpayers $95 a day per person for incarceration and the
unquantifiable social costs of broken families. Montana, of course,
is not unique. States across the nation prosecute drug crimes in much
the same way.

So is all this prosecution and imprisonment making people safer? Is
the crime rate declining? Are fewer people using drugs? The answer to
all these questions is a resounding no. Prisons are bursting at the
seams and drug use is up 10 percent since the start of the war on drugs.

Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron estimates that legalizing drugs and
regulating them the way we do alcohol and tobacco would create an
annual $88 billion boon to the national economy.

Montana legislators had an opportunity to regulate and even tax
voter-approved medical marijuana this session but threw that chance
down the drain in favor of knee-jerk "drugs are bad," reform that
helps no one, but hurts thousands of suffering patients.

Instead of pursuing common-sense solutions that treat addiction and
make it possible for drug offenders to lead productive lives, we as a
nation seem to have an obsession with punishing them -- not for the
actual harm they've committed, but because we are mad at them for using drugs.

Make no mistake. Those who commit crimes like robbery, assault,
burglary and other offenses in the pursuit of drugs should be tried
and punished for those crimes. But to incarcerate them for simply
using drugs serves no one. It costs taxpayers to build and operate
new prisons, and it costs families who lose fathers and mothers.

Drug possession is the only crime for which we lock up thousands of
people because they might harm themselves, even when they have harmed
no one else.

Even those who believe that drugs should remain illegal can't argue
that those who serve time in prison and are offered no treatment or
training are more likely to commit more crime than those who are
offered treatment or other re-entry programs.

It would make more sense to decriminalize possession of small amounts
of drugs and to keep first-time offenders out of jail.

States that have increased their focus on treatment have seen
positive results. In Texas, a new emphasis on treating drug offenders
has contributed to the state's lowest crime rate since 1973.

The current war on drugs is a war in its death-spiral. It's time to
find new solutions to address drug addiction, to improve public
safety and to preserve families.