BACK TO THE PAST FOR WAR ON DRUGS STRATEGY

When you are living in a nation with 5 percent of the world's
population yet 25 percent of the world's prisoners, according to a
New York Times article printed on Oct. 29 "Falling Crime, Teeming
Prisons," it's pretty clear that things are a bit off. Government
spending on prisons has reached $77 billion a year, according to the
same article. In a less-than-perfect economy, it's time for all the
talk of reform to get put into action.

Despite the fact that crime rates have grown to levels not seen since
the mid 1960s, the overall rate of incarceration in the past 30 years
has increased by more than 500 percent. According the the Pew
Research Center, around one in 100 adults in the United States are
kept behind bars, and a significant portion of this population is
comprised of non-violent drug offenders.

It is evident today that the "War on Drugs," launched by Richard
Nixon in the '70s and amplified by Ronald Reagan in the '80s, is
outdated and ineffective. Making drugs illegal rather than regulating
them has led to a highly profitable black market. Prohibition didn't
work then, and it isn't working now. Forget what they tell you in
school books, the "War on Drugs" has in fact become the longest and
most expensive war in American history.

The Global Commission on Drug Policy, comprised of former presidents
of Mexico, Brazil, Columbia, former U.N. and U.S. officials and the
current prime minister of Greece, among others, has banded together
to publicize the urgent need for reform on drug control policies. The
Commission released a statement this past June stating, "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, and cannot, be
won," as reported by CBS News.

With a growing concern for overcrowded prisons, California spending
more government money on prisons than on education and news that Los
Angeles County jails could run out of space as early as next month,
we must decide who really needs to be put behind bars.

In a nation where taxpayers foot the bill for a prison system
influenced more by politics than bringing about justice, the National
Criminal Justice Commission Act deserves another look. First
introduced in 2009 by Senator Jim Webb, the act calls for a
bipartisan commission which would examine the criminal justice system
and make recommendations for its improvement. "The bill is supported
by organizations across the political spectrum, from the NAACP and
the ACLU to the National Sheriffs' Association and the Fraternal
Order of Police.," as stated in Huffington Post article, "Congress on
Speed: Partisan Conflict Led to Many Problems in 1986 Drug Law" by
Eric Sterling printed on Nov. 1. Despite passing in the House in
2010, the bill has recently been blocked by the Republicans in the
senate. However, Webb has stated he feels this is only a minor
setback and will continue to push for criminal justice reform.

Government's focus on punishment rather than prevention has resulted
in half of all police resources working to stop drug trafficking,
rather than to curb violent crime. A zero-tolerance attitude towards
drugs established with 1986's Anti-Drug Abuse Act has done little to
reduce rates of drug use in the U.S. "Every year since its passage,
America has grown thousands of tons of the world's strongest
marijuana, produced hundreds of millions of doses of synthetic drugs,
and sent tens of billions of dollars into the accounts of drug
traffickers around the world," notes president of the Criminal
Justice Policy Foundation Eric E. Sterling in Huffington Post
article, "Congress on Speed: Partisan Conflict Led to Many Problems
in 1986 Drug Law".

Greater focus in drug offense cases should be placed on treatment and
rehabilitation to increase public safety. "Far too often," reports
New York Times editorial, "Falling Crime, Teeming Prisons" printed on
Oct. 29, "prison has become a warehouse for people with drug or
alcohol addiction." Drug treatment programs would not only reduce the
number of nonviolent criminals in our prison system, but would
significantly decrease cost for taxpayers, with treatment programs
averaging $20,000 less per person per year than incarceration for offenders.

The increasingly conservative opposition often fails to recognize
that drug use is not likely to see significant decrease, whether it
is legal or not. As long as the public has a demand, there will be a
supplier who gets the product out there, whether through legal
regulation and taxation or organized and dangerous crime.

Today, many college students' attitudes toward drugs are not so
different from those toward alcohol. While drug use may be slightly
more frowned upon in society, it has been on the rise for decades, as
nearly half of full-time college students binge drink or abuse drugs
at least once a month, according to a 2007 study by the National
Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.

The "War on Drugs" needs to take a cue from 1920s prohibition
reforms. For a stronger economy and safer nation, it's time for a change.