INEFFECTIVE, EXPENSIVE DRUG WAR RAGES ON

We just passed the halfway point of 2004 and it is time for an update
on the "war on drugs." Sad to say, it is still going strong.

According to the website www.drugsense.org, we have spent more than
$20 billion so far this year on this "war," putting us on a pace to
surpass last's year's expenditure of $39 billion.

More than 800,000 people have been arrested for drug offenses so far
(377,780 for marijuana), and if this pace continues, more than 1.5
million will have been arrested by the end of the year. Thus far, more
than 120,000 people have been sent to prison for drug law violations,
and if the trend continues, we will have sent 236,800 to prison for
this "crime" by year's end.

The drug czar's "anti-drug" media campaign continues, especially with
regard to marijuana.

Apparently John Walters and company still adhere to the "reefer
madness" nonsense that started back in the 1930s. In 2003, Walters'
office wrote: "Marijuana is not a benign drug. Use impairs learning
and judgment, and may lead to the development of mental health problems.

Smoking marijuana can injure or destroy lung tissue.

In fact, marijuana smoke contains 50 to 70 percent more of some
cancer-causing chemicals than does tobacco smoke."

Both of these statements are either outright lies or gross
distortions. There is no scientific evidence that marijuana leads to
serious mental health problems, although there are people with mental
health problems who may use drugs (and drug use is merely a symptom
rather than a cause). Besides, alcohol is far worse and there is no
prohibition against it. As for injuring lung tissue, to begin with,
"moderate use" is defined as 15 to 24 grams of tobacco per day, and
very few pot smokers use more than a gram or two; hence smoking
cigarettes is far more damaging.

In fact, while no one has recently died from too much pot smoking,
about 450,000 die each year from illnesses caused by tobacco.

Too bad marijuana growers don't have a lobby to give money to
politicians like the tobacco and liquor industries do.

Walters and company also claim that marijuana can be addictive, citing
as evidence the fact that "more teens are in treatment with a primary
diagnosis of marijuana dependence than for all other illicit drugs
combined." This is extremely misleading, for most kids ordered into
treatment by juvenile court judges have accepted this as a plea
bargain to avoid harsher punishments. Few, if any, are "addicted" to
pot. If anything, they are more likely to have problems with alcohol
dependence.

A study at Johns Hopkins University found that of 1,318 subjects
covering a 15-year period, there were "no significant differences in
cognitive decline between heavy users, light users and nonusers of
cannabis." The report concludes that: "These results...seem to provide
strong evidence of the absence of a long-term residual effect of
cannabis use on cognition."

The problems associated with illegal drug use stem more from the fact
that they are illegal than from the harmful properties of the drugs
themselves. Take police corruption, for instance.

According to a 1998 GAO report on this issue, many police officers in
several cities (e.g., Atlanta, Chicago, New York, Detroit, Los
Angeles, Miami, Cleveland, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C) have
engaged in serious criminal activities, such as 1) conducting
unconstitutional searches and seizures, 2) stealing money and/or drugs
from drug dealers, 3) selling stolen drugs, 4) protecting drug
operations, 5) providing false testimony and 6) submitting false crime
reports.

The federal government continues to spend the bulk of drug war money
on "supply reduction." Of about $18.8 billion spent in 2002,
two-thirds was directed to supply reduction (law enforcement), with
the remainder going toward treatment, prevention and education.

Despite these efforts, the trade in illegal drugs continues to be one
of the most profitable ventures in the world--an estimated $400
billion industry, according to a United Nations report. A study by Abt
Associates in 2001 found that the cost of heroin at the retail level
has been declining, dropping from about $3,295 per gram in 1981 to
$2,088 per gram in 2000; at the wholesale level, these figures went
from $865 to $112. Another U.N. report noted that during the past
decade inflation-adjusted prices in Western Europe fell by 45 percent
for cocaine and 60 percent for heroin; in the U.S. there was a 50
percent drop in cocaine prices and a 70 percent drop in heroin prices.

Nothing succeeds like failure.

The main beneficiaries of the drug war are the "drug warriors"
themselves. In addition to good salaries and benefits, there are
several million dollars in forfeitures going into the deep pockets of
the law enforcement industry.