ESTABLISHMENT WON'T ALTER DRUG LAWS THAT BENEFIT IT

Editor, the Tribune:

Proposition 1's sponsors reasonably expected little official opposition to
their modest proposal. Paradoxically, marijuana's widespread popularity
ensures that official interests will fight every inch of reform.

Drug enforcement is a wellspring of largesse for the criminal justice
sector, and marijuana violations dwarf all other drug offenses combined.
This massively inflates the apparent magnitude of the "drug problem" and
swells enforcement funding accordingly. When marijuana arrests pay for
jails, prosecutors, training and other goodies, it's not surprising to find
officials opposed to any relaxation.

This hidden agenda might explain why the local officials who ceremoniously
proclaimed their unanimous opposition seemed incongruously lacking in zeal
and awkward in articulating their rationale. The drug czar's emissaries
were plainly disingenuous.

Any challenge to current drug policy boils down to a petty turf battle with
criminal justice interests who've long held absolute sway. Giving
pragmatists a seat means sharing power and resources, and dilutes the rigid
moralism that caters to a loyal but unsophisticated anti-drug core
constituency. Any threat to the doctrinal supremacy of prohibition, police
and punishment provokes a barrage of rationalization, diversionary
skepticism and derisive stereotyping of reformers as countercultural
"legalizers" or elitist dilettantes. This time the Office of National Drug
Control Policy's flacks must have calculated that "pointy-headed
intellectuals' " rhetoric might backfire in Columbia.

This redoubt of self-interest must be confronted before reform initiatives
can get a fair test. Drug policy has been corrupted to suit the wants of a
few, and things will get worse as long as this continues.

Matt Ausley Jr., Lake Waccamaw, N.C.