ABANDONING THE 'DRUG-FREE AMERICA' MYTH

Rush Limbaugh is addicted to OxyContin. Arnold Schwarzenegger smoked pot
and consumed anabolic steroids. Most Americans enjoy a daily cup of coffee.
The fact is, this country is filled with drugs - prescription,
over-the-counter, illegal and otherwise. The drug warriors have been
promising for decades to make America drug-free. Billions of dollars have
been spent and hundreds of thousands of people are locked up. Yet drugs are
as prevalent and easy-to-get as ever.

It's time for a new approach. First off, let's abandon the "drug-free"
myth. Clinging to this impossible goal clouds our common sense and perverts
our policy priorities. Instead, we should focus on implementing new drug
policies that are fiscally responsible and have the goal of keeping
Americans safe and healthy.

Drug treatment, for example, works better than prison in helping to stop
the cycle of addiction. Just ask Rush. Or Noelle Bush. Or Cindy McCain
(John's wife). Unfortunately, half of Americans who need treatment cannot
get it. Instead they are taken away from their families and locked in a
jail cell for crimes committed primarily against themselves. Those who
struggle every day with addiction need help, not a drug charge on their
record that could ruin their future chances for jobs, school loans, or
public housing.

Federal and state governments flush about $40 billion a year trying to win
the war on drugs. The lion's share goes toward busting, trying, and
incarcerating nonviolent drug users and petty dealers. The federal prison
bill for housing over 78,000 drug offenders exceeds $1.8 billion every
year. Most of the men and women in federal prisons for drug offenses are
first-time, nonviolent offenders.

Although the feds have the option of running up deficits, states do not.
Burdened with massive prison bureaucracies, states are now forced to slash
funds for everything else, including schools, healthcare, job creation, and
even law enforcement. Yes, that's right. There are fewer cops on the street
because states are employing guards, cooks, builders, accountants, and
doctors (among others) to provide 24-hour services to petty drug offenders.

In order to save money on prisons, we should roll back the draconian
sentencing regimes for nonviolent drug crimes. For instance, in California,
possession of less than one ounce of heroin or selling a $10 bag of
marijuana can send any adult on an all-expenses-paid trip to the gray bar
hotel for three years or more. Three years of prison time costs California
taxpayers around $84,000 per prisoner, not including the expenses related
to enforcement and legal proceedings.

By abandoning the impossible goal of becoming a "drug-free" society, we can
begin to focus our drug education programs on keeping people, especially
young people, safe. Instead of programs being evaluated solely on whether
they increase or decrease non-problematic, occasional drug use, we can look
at how our policies affect rates of death, disease, crime, suffering and
their cost to the hard-working taxpayer.

We all live with drugs all around us, whether it's cigarettes or Prozac or
pot. We know we can't get rid of them, so let's try instead to reduce the
risks associated with them. We can support designated driver campaigns for
alcohol drinkers, for example, or syringe exchange programs to help heroin
users prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS to each other and their families. We
can support drug treatment as an inexpensive and effective way of deterring
drug abuse, rather than continuing to try and arrest and incarcerate our
way out of the problem.

Lawmakers should reduce or even eliminate the jail time for nonviolent drug
crimes, and earmark the savings from prisons for community policing, drug
treatment, and healthcare. Or give it back to us in the form of tax
rebates. But for the sake of reason, health, and ultimately justice, we
should stop pursuing the hopeless ideal of a "drug-free America".

Glenn Backes, MSW, MPH, is Director of the California Capital Office of
Drug Policy Alliance, a national membership organization dedicated to
developing alternatives to the war on drugs.