DRUG SUMMIT HAS CHANCE TO SMASH ASSUMPTIONS

While I think Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona's upcoming Drug Control Strategy
Summit (Sept. 15-17) is a good idea, I am concerned that it will end with
recommendations for more of the same failed policies that led us into the
current crisis. In addition to the damage that drugs create, I hope the summit
also will consider the damage that current policies create for drug users,
their families, taxpayers and citizens who become crime victims.

I hope summit participants will understand that people who are arrested for
taking illegal drugs are marked for life. Their arrest records make it
difficult for them to find employment, housing and financial aid for higher
education, and to overcome their addictions.

I hope participants will consider that the families of those arrested for drugs
are victims of our current law-enforcement policies. Incarcerating the
breadwinner or the children's primary caretaker can destroy a family, push it
into bankruptcy, scar the children and contribute to a new generation of people
with social problems.

I hope the attendees will recognize that taxpayers also are victimized by our
prohibitionist policies, which create overloaded prisons, higher welfare costs,
and law enforcement and judicial bureaucracies.

I hope they will realize that most drug-related crime is caused by prohibition.
Making certain drugs illegal creates a black market for them and inflates their
prices. People addicted to legal drugs like alcohol or nicotine rarely have to
resort to crime to get money to buy them, but people addicted to illegal drugs
often steal to pay for them. Because the black market drives up prices, drug
prohibition actually increases the rates of robbery, burglary and car theft.

To avoid perpetuating the problems created by our current policies, I hope
summit attendees will examine the accuracy of commonly accepted assumptions,
including:

*- Drug use equals drug abuse equals addiction. One secret of the drug war is
that most people who use illicit drugs do so responsibly. They hold down jobs,
pay their taxes and raise their kids. Although drug abuse and addiction can
lead to horrifying consequences for some people, the epidemiological facts
suggest that the majority of people who consume illicit drugs do so for
recreation and in moderation. Those who commit crimes to support their habits,
or do so while intoxicated (assault, DUI), may deserve time in jail, but
society would be much better served by treating the majority of drug users
differently.

*- We can achieve a drug-free society. There has never been a drug-free
society. Pursuit of this fantasy has corroded the integrity of law enforcement,
weakened our rights and destroyed countless lives.

*- Law enforcement and treatment experts know best. I hope that the summit will
include some people who do not have a financial stake in continuing the current
failed policies. Inviting people mostly from the law enforcement and
substance-abuse treatment communities will prejudice the results of the summit.
No matter how well-intentioned the participants whose livelihoods depend upon
maintaining the current policies, their solutions cannot avoid being biased.

I hope attendees will consider a variety of approaches to our drug-abuse
problems, and that the criteria will be "what works" or "what will reduce harm
for all sectors of society."

I hope that the participants will be open to strategies that have been used
effectively elsewhere, such as:

*- repealing mandatory minimum sentence requirements

*- using managed-addiction treatment rather than relying on abstinence-based
programs

*- removing the profit incentive from the civil asset forfeiture statute and
diverting the proceeds of seized assets from law enforcement budgets to
treatment programs

*- using evidence-based prevention programs rather than the ineffective
D.A.R.E. programs

One segment of the recovery community has a practical definition of insanity:
"doing more of the same and expecting different results." I hope the
drug-summit participants will choose sanity and address the harm of drugs and
the war on drugs for all of us.