STUMBO'S PLAN 'WILL NOT REDUCE KENTUCKY DRUG USE'

Denis Fleming's Dec. 5 Forum article on incoming Attorney General Greg
Stumbo's plans for fighting drugs was anything but reassuring. Obviously,
Stumbo and Fleming (the deputy attorney general-designate) are not well
read in the criminal justice literature, or they are more concerned with
their political images than with the health and welfare of Kentuckians.
Their plan calls for expanding the tried and true failures of the past with
a blind eye to what research shows us actually works.

For years, academic researchers of the right and left have noted that U.S.
drug policies actually elevate drug usage, diminish health, increase murder
rates and waste tax dollars. Where the rest of the civilized Western world
treats drug addiction as a medical problem and addresses the problem
compassionately with scientific solutions, Stumbo and Fleming want to
continue to treat drug addicts as vermin wasting valuable police time and
public money rounding up the sick.

Countries like the Netherlands that decriminalized soft drug use like
marijuana found their adolescent consumption rates dropped and are now well
below U.S. adolescent consumption rates. And rather than pumping money into
the criminal underground economy, the money goes to legal businesses and is
taxed. Conservative Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman estimates
that the U.S. incurs an extra 10,000 murders each year as dealers fight for
market share. Crimes like theft and robbery remain high, in part because
illegal drugs cost more than legal ones.

Fleming notes that in the past 10 years, Kentucky has experienced
significant growth in the prosecution and imprisonment of Kentucky drug
addicts. Nationwide, we have increased our prison populations by 400
percent since former President Reagan stepped up the drug war in 1980,
making the U.S. the planet's No. 1 country in terms of putting its citizens
in prison.

I don't mean to question Stumbo or Fleming's motives. Drug addiction is a
national and Kentucky problem. And at first blush, it would seem reasonable
that increased surveillance and punishment would reduce the incidence of
unwanted behavior - in this case, drug use. However, like many things in
life, it does not work that way. The evidence is clear that what Stumbo is
proposing will not reduce Kentucky drug use. By driving the behavior
underground, diseases like hepatitis and AIDS will be more difficult to
contain. Theft, robbery and murder rates will remain high. Prisons will
remain crowded with drug addicts while police lack time and money to
protect senior citizens, go after child and spouse abusers, enforce
environmental laws and protect us from white-collar crimes.

Stumbo's plan will not make Kentuckians safer or healthier. Let's be
honest. Tobacco smokers will kill and maim far more innocent bystanders
with their second-hand smoke than deaths from all illegal drugs combined.
The deaths and health costs from first-hand smoking will dwarf the harm
from our pot heads. While there is some irony in this, for an increasingly
educated public, Stumbo's plan is no longer funny.

Kentucky needs leaders who are ready to make a difference and think outside
the box. Maybe Stumbo could actually read the academic literature on
reducing drug use and abuse. Then follow up on what is in the best interest
of the public rather than his reelection.

SAM SLOSS

Louisville 40205