FAULT-BASED 'WAR ON DRUGS' CONTINUES TO CAUSE TRAGEDY

Kate Comiskey's death is a tragic casualty of the war on drugs.

It began when Governor General Taft outlawed opium in the newly
conquered Philippines, then expanded with the Pure Food and Drug and
Harrison acts. After the failed experiment with alcohol prohibition,
not-to-be-defeated moralists convinced Congress to make marijuana
essentially illegal with exorbitant taxation.

The only opposition testimony was from the American Medical
Association. Nixon developed the forerunner to the DEA and vowed to
create a way to get blacks without appearing to be racist.

It has worked quite well.

Nixon commissioned conservative Republican Govs. Shafer and Hughes to
do a study and officially denounce marijuana once and for all. That
commission disappointed the president and recommended, among other
things, that marijuana should be legal/regulated as is alcohol, and
that the only legitimate role for the federal government regarding
drug use would be to help identify people who might benefit by getting
help. That report was rejected by Nixon, and the war on drugs was
initiated with a relatively small budget of about $30 million.

Selective prohibition was considered the moral thing to do; it would
drive up prices, making drugs comparatively unavailable to the average
person.

By the time Reagan became president, the war on drugs took a serious
turn. Maryland University basketball star Len Bias died of a cocaine
seizure (his friends were afraid to get help for fear of legal
culpability) and several dozen crack babies fed the federal frenzy
that ratcheted up the war even further.

Helping it along was the CIA involvement in cocaine trafficking to
help fund the illegal arming of Contras in Nicaragua. Illicit drugs
became a huge business - because of the black market.

It is estimated that the three largest industries in the world today
are oil, arms and illicit drugs.

Unfortunately, there is so much money to be made in illicit drugs that
no one in legislative power is willing to pull out the rug on this
financial feeding trough.

The money derived from illicit drugs finances governments, central
banks, political parties and countless subversive organizations. The
profits only exist in the context of a black market. These drugs are
not expensive to produce or distribute, and even with
interdiction/confiscations the prices are only 10 percent of what they
were at the threshold of the war on drugs in the early 1980s. It has
also fueled an explosion of prisoners, with more people incarcerated
for nonviolent drug offenses in the United States than in all of
Europe for all causes.

Today, more black adult men are in jail than college.

In 2003, there were more arrests in America for simple marijuana
possession than for all violent crime combined.

Drug law violations are difficult to detect, as they generally involve
a voluntary seller and purchaser.

Purchasers may be seeking euphoric escape, relief of suffering or to
fuel addiction.

In order to discover these transactions, government often rely on
snitches, informants and undercover agents in order to "catch" one or
more persons engaging in mutually consensual commerce.

Mitch Gooldy was such a man. Although he was a frequent flier in drug
court, he arranged to become an informant for the government instead
of going to jail (or obtaining the medical help the Shafer Commission
thought he should be receiving). This placed him in ideal position to
continue (ab)using illicit drugs, and is a directly complicit
circumstance in the crime for which he is charged - vehicular murder
of Ms. Comiskey.

Our current strategy for selective illicit drug use is fault based.

If we were to consider instead a public health policy that utilizes
harm reduction, reality education, treatment and maintenance programs,
we would save billions (Rand study suggests a $7 return on every
dollar so invested), allow hundreds of thousands of otherwise peaceful
people to be productive citizens and family members, diminish our
drain on welfare resources and free our police and courts to deal with
more threatening problems. People in such a system are more than twice
as likely to be employed and drug-free. In such a system, Ms. Comiskey
might still be alive. The problem is such a system relies on
scientific facts, logic and reason. It diminishes moralists who feel
certain drug use is simply wrong and should be punished.

Given the current budgetary state of affairs in Indiana and America,
we should re-evaluate our current approach if for no other purpose
than to save money.

The additional benefit would be healthier people, fewer broken homes,
more people in the work force.