DRUG WARS: THE PHANTOM MENACE

The formula for crime is part neighborhood/police tension and part drug
business, according to ReconsiDer, a local organization that promotes
discussion of drug policies and changes to them. Both parts feed off one
another, and are exacerbated by hauling nonviolent drug offenders off to
prison, said Nicolas Eyle, executive director of the organization.

"When you are constantly pulling people over and searching them and
finding small quantities of drugs and arresting people, you're
creating hostility," Eyle said. "That kid who's been pulled over 20
times and searched has a different attitude toward police than the kid
in Fayetteville who goes about his business untouched."

This disparity and the resulting quality-of-life impact will be
discussed at a free forum on Thursday, Dec. 5, at 7 p.m. at LeMoyne
Manor, 629 Old Liverpool Road, Liverpool. Keynote speakers are local
attorney Alan Rosenthal of the Center for Community Alternatives and
retired Tonawanda police Capt. Peter Christ. The two men will discuss
incarceration for drug offenders from different perspectives, Eyle
said, but both subscribe to similar, more rehabilitation-based views
on the subject.

Still, don't label them soft on crime. "{ReconsiDer} isn't some
touchy-feely, 'be nice to people,' liberal type of thing," Eyle said.
"This is simply a pragmatic approach to this problem. Violent
offenders still belong behind bars," he added. To reduce crime, the
group instead advocates a simple formula, although it may not be easy
to establish: legalize drugs and regulate them as alcohol was decades
ago. The hoped-for result: crime and violence that often accompany the
drug trade will fall away.

"When you have a regulated substance like alcohol, you don't have
those problems," Eyle said. "There are all sort of rules: You can't
open a bar without a liquor license; you can't serve to minors. There
are all kinds of rules that make this kind of activity work. If you
take illegal drugs and make them legal, give out licenses, check the
purity of products and pay taxes on it, then you start to have some
control. Is it perfect? No. We have legalized alcohol and there are
still problems. But at least we don't have people shooting each other
over who sells Budweiser and who sells Miller on what shelves in the
supermarket. We don't have someone thinking they are drinking 80-proof
alcohol when they're really drinking 150-proof."

And, if asked, he argued, most people do not have a problem with
someone sitting on the living-room couch smoking marijuana. Problems
come in when drug users begin hurting others as a result of their
habit, Eyle said. "If all you're doing is possessing, then that's your
problem," he said. "I'm not saying it's a good choice, but the way the
system is now, it would be like taking someone who buys some vodka and
throwing them in prison for three years. What exactly have you
accomplished?" Not much is accomplished, he explained, since many
prisons focus on punishment over rehabilitation. At the same time,
many Americans are in favor of rehabilitation programs. In a study
published in 1998 by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 48.4 percent of
respondents reported that they believe the most important goal of a
prison should be rehabilitation over punishment or deterrence.

According to a 1999 Zogby poll conducted in New York state, 73.8
percent of respondents favored rehabilitation for drug offenders over
any jail time at all.

What happens when nonviolent drug offenders are jailed, and what will
be addressed at the forum, is the cycle of incarceration and poverty.
Job prospects in Central New York are bleak enough, Eyle said, and
with a prison record, "you are pretty much at the bottom of the list."

In addition, sending a nonviolent drug offender to jail also means he
or she is keeping company with more hardened criminals, Eyle added.
"They don't stay there forever. They spend a year or two years or five
and then come out, for the most part in worse condition than when they
went in," he said.

And even when convicts are released, they often return, especially
younger ones. According to a study by the Bureau of Justice
Statistics, published in 2001 and examining the period between 1986
and 1997, 13.9 percent of offenders under age 21 return to prison
within three years of release. "Taking some kid who has small amount
of marijuana or cocaine in his pocket and giving him a drug conviction
means his chance of living a decent life are greatly reduced," Eyle
said.

For more information on the forum, call 422-6231.