OTHER COSTS OF DRUG WAR

Two recent programs on National Public Radio talked about prison
overcrowding and the trend toward early release of felons as a way to
deal with it. During much debate, no one mentioned the solution to
this and a host of other social and economic problems: Legalize drugs.

All of them - not just the ones we currently wink at, such as
marijuana, but even the big boys, heroin and cocaine. Before the hue
and cry of moral outrage, let me point out a few things. n Drugs are
not a moral issue. They are medical and/or political issues.

- -If you add up the total cost in death, illness, lost productivity
attributed to illegal drugs, that figure is a minuscule portion of the
cost of our legal intoxicants, alcohol and tobacco. On the other hand,
if you look at the law enforcement costs, 90 percent of law
enforcement money goes to drug crime.

- -The only people who benefit from prohibition are drug criminals and
their counterparts in drug law enforcement. Take away the crime and
you take away the profit motive along with all its violence and corruption.

Most street cops, who do all the work, agree. This I can attest to as
the first police psychologist in North Carolina and as someone who has
had considerable contact with personnel in a variety of law
enforcement agencies.

Without drug crime, law enforcement can deal with serious criminals,
not just those who commit crimes to finance the purchase of substances
whose price is inflated by prohibition, or engage in violence over
"turf." Jails will be emptied of dealers and users, who now comprise
the bulk of prison populations. Drug cartels will have no money to
corrupt governments or their agencies, and no reason to commit the
wholesale slaughter they now engage in.

All the money thus released can go toward social needs now being
fiscally starved, including treatment for addicts who wish to stop. We
might even be able to save Social Security and pay the unemployment
benefits for all those ex-DEA agents.

MARTIN EAGLE,
Bahama,
January 1, 2003