DRUG WAR WASTES NEEDED RESOURCES

"Those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it." -- George
Santayana

Students who paid attention in history class can quickly tick off a
laundry list of "learned lessons" of Prohibition. For example, instead
of enforcement eliminating alcohol use, it fueled a whole new culture
of use. "Speak Easies" and private dance halls became the rage. The
federal police busted thousands of locations that sold illegal liquor.
Businessmen like Al Capone, whose business cards listed him as a "used
furniture dealer," built powerful empires of crime and corruption from
Prohibition. Bathtub Gin, Jamaican Ginger or worse concoctions started
taking their toll of blindness and mayhem. Because of this, among
other reasons, Prohibition was repealed.

Prohibition's repeal was championed by the same grassroots
organizations that helped create it. Organizations like the Crusaders
believed in temperance, but remembered what life was like before
Prohibition and recognized that the use of alcohol was being driven
underground. Prohibition enforcement handed over control of
distribution of alcohol to thugs and really equaled zero control. They
came to the opinion that although Prohibition was created with the
best of intentions, it was causing more harm than good, and they
fought for repeal.

Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore and his brother, Delegate
Terry Kilgore (R-1st), say in order to get tough on methamphetamines,
we need a dozen new laws including 10-year mandatory sentences to
contain the problem. If more prohibition equals less control and more
crime, then why do these good men want more drug war?

I think they are using the emotions surrounding drug use to further
their careers. I guess they don't care what the long-term fallout will
be from their actions.

I don't think any current Virginia legislators were alive in 1914 when
drug prohibition started, so I understand if they don't remember that
most of the problems we associate today with drug use didn't even
exist back when drugs were still legal. If they remembered, they might
make a pronouncement like the one made last month by Dr. Marek
Balicki, Poland's Minister of Health, who said, "After analyzing the
enormous social and health-related costs of criminalizing the personal
use of drugs, which resulted from decisions made in 2000, the Ministry
of Health has recommended decriminalization of personal use again.
Making criminals from young people that have tried drugs is without sense."

Lennice Werth, a Virginia working mom and award-winning activist, runs
a grassroots volunteer organization called Virginians Against Drug
Violence (VADV) and regularly attends meetings at the state
legislature. Ms. Werth said, "Legislators claim they are doing
something to reduce methamphetamine use, but research done by Rand
corporation shows increased penalties do very little to reduce use,
while research done by Professor Arditti of Virginia Tech helps show
how these draconian policies are destroying families and unraveling
the very fabric of our society."

One of the most active members of VADV is Roy Scherer. Scherer, a U.S.
Air Force veteran, lives in the capitol area, spends many days and
nights attending legislative committee meetings and sending reports to
grassroots activists throughout the state. Scherer, who also writes
for the LP News, was sent on assignment to cover the "Virginia
Methamphetamine Leadership Summit" held Dec. 6 at the Richmond
Convention Center, co-sponsored by the U.S. Attorneys for Eastern and
Western Virginia, and Virginia Attorney General Kilgore.

Scherer may be one of the most knowledgeable people in the entire
state of Virginia on our drug laws, so of course they excluded him
from the event and threatened to have him arrested if he didn't vacate
the premises immediately. Scherer, who wears a suit and tie to
meetings, says he may have been denied access to this supposedly open
event for his long hair and the fact that the publication he writes
for, the LP News, often criticizes the failed war on drugs. Scherer
said he was surprised because a methamphetamine press event months
earlier was easy to attend. He speculated that the earlier event may
have been a show for the public's benefit because the "voluntary"
policies they spoke of (and were widely televised) were nowhere to be
found in the pile of new draconian policy suggestions produced by the
secret methamphetamine leadership summit.

The price of drugs when illegal is many thousand times the legal
price. This obscene "drug war tax" creates empires for the modern
versions of Al Capone. It is time we applied the lessons of history
and bankrupt the Al Capones of our day. We could have free college
tuition without the albatross of the drug war around our necks.

Please call and voice your concerns with your Virginia state
representatives by dialing the Constituent Viewpoint Hotline at
1-800-899-0229. Tell them to just say no to any new drug war bills.