IT'S TIME TO RETHINK DRUG WAR STRATEGY

With each passing year, evidence mounts that America is sadly losing the
war on drugs -- not to drug cartels or drug traffickers over there, but to
the dependably relentless appetite for illegal drugs created by our
neighbors right here at home. Eighty-six years after Congress passed the
1914 Harrison Act that criminalized drugs, America's drug consumption
thrives. According to recent surveys and news reports, illegal drugs are
cheaper, purer and more available than ever before, and the results are
devastating.

Still, our national drug war strategy calls for an even greater police
presence in our nation's streets and public spaces. Drug-law enforcement,
however, is at best a very difficult proposition at all levels. Drug law
violations are generally consensual. In almost every case, willing buyers
and motivated sellers participate secretly in this highly profitable
criminalized industry.

I am concerned that for good, hard-working police officers -- federal or
otherwise -- to do their jobs, they must snoop, spy, sniff, sneak and
covertly surveil to snag drugs, drug traffickers or drug users. Most of the
snooping, sneaking and snagging is done primarily by using informants --
people who use their own criminal status or position to gain some benefit
from the police by trading information.

It is a dangerous, dirty business, chock full of espionage, deceit, lies
and double-crosses. I am concerned about what this side of the police
business is doing to other sides of our profession ethically and morally.

We need only to look at the Los Angeles Police Department's widely reported
Rampart Division scandal, in which some police officers stole money and
drugs, and planted evidence, for a salient recent example of drug law
enforcement gone awry. We put our integrity, hard-earned community trust
and credibility at risk when police stoop to snagging fellow, otherwise
law-abiding Americans over drugs in ways that we do in our current strategy.

I am concerned about the billions of dollars spent every year by our
nation's police in attempting to eradicate or intercept illegal drug
shipments to our country. These billions might be better spent on demand
reduction, prevention, treatment, education, community-building and
supporting families. Federal agencies spend countless hours tracking
planes, boats, trains and other vehicles transporting cocaine, heroin and
marijuana earmarked for the U.S. market. These agencies and others have
scored many widely publicized successes in detection, eradication, seizures
and arrests both in foreign countries and within our borders.

However in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, traffickers have become
more brazen in the quantity, more creative in the route and more determined
than ever to match their supply with America's demand. The United Nations
estimates that illegal drugs generate $400 billion a year in revenue and
comprise 8 percent of all global trade. America is, by far, the largest
consumer.

This year, seizures off the Florida coast on Feb. 11 and 12 yielded 15.8
tons of cocaine. From Feb. 21 through 25, the U.S. Coast Guard seized
28,845 pounds of cocaine, about the same amount it captured in all 1996.

Several years ago, drug agents in Los Angeles seized nearly 29 tons of
cocaine and more than $10 million in cash in what was called at the time
the largest drug haul in history with street values estimated at up to $20
billion.

During the weeks after these massive seizures, the price of cocaine in the
United States was unaffected. This draws the inevitable conclusion that our
nation is so saturated with stockpiles, clandestine labs and trafficking
arteries that these celebrated seizures were really a mere drop in the
proverbial bucket.

I am also concerned about the "business" of drug-crime incarcerations in
our country. It really is big business, composed of hundreds of thousands
of law-enforcement and prison officials, drug courts, private and public
prisons, anti-drug organizations, drug-testing labs, clearing houses and
many others who benefit economically and politically from this ever-growing
bounty.

Our lock-ups at all levels are fuller today than ever before. In 1980,
approximately 50,000 people were behind bars for violating drug laws.
Today, because of aggressive policing, prosecution and mandatory sentences,
that number has surpassed 500,000 and advancing. Warehousing people, many
of them who are black like me, is one of the fastest growing and most
profitable businesses in our country -- all supported by our taxpayer dollars.

So, contrary to what our national law enforcement leaders are saying, our
drug enforcement strategy and our punitive prohibition-based efforts are
failing. Former Secretary of State George Shultz said some time ago that
any real and lasting change that occurs in a democratic society is done
through education and persuasion and not through coercion and force.
Perhaps it's time to heed his sage advice and search for alternative
approaches to our drug-control strategies that will be more effective, fair
and humane in reducing drug usage and drug dependency. A policy that will
emphasize treatment, prevention and education, and that will rely on our
social and health systems more than on our criminal justice systems.

I am certainly not advocating legalizing substance abuse or
decriminalization of drug laws. I am calling for more imagination in the
process, more truth about our prognosis and more options in our efforts to
more effectively address this problem.

A growing number of thoughtful Americans across the political spectrum have
strong doubts abut the efficacy of the current drug war, its costs, its
true impact and its future consequences. They want to rethink our direction
and possibilities. As a police chief on the front line, quite frankly I'm
one of them.