A NEEDLESS TRAGEDY

Why Did Sgt. Futrell Have to Die in the Futile War on Pot?

At his funeral, they called Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Sergeant Anthony
Scott Futrell a hero.

But Futrell, who died in a plane crash two weeks ago while scouting
marijuana plants in the fields of Chowan County, was more than a hero: he
was also the latest victim of this country's increasingly absurd war on
illegal drugs.

That this gifted, multi-talented individual who served on the SWAT team,
was an EMT, a pilot and a member of ALERT (a terrorist attack emergency
response team), should perish the way he did seems even more tragic.

Had Futrell died diffusing a hostage situation, saving a drowning woman, or
combating a terrorist attack, his death might have served a nobler purpose,
something more in line with his level of dedication.

But the reality of the situation is that Futrell lost his life in a futile
attempt to stop some aging yuppies from lighting up after a hard week at
the office, and what that accomplished, I don't know.

Futrell and the two other officers who died in that terrible crash were
soldiers on the losing side of the most senseless facet of the drug war:
the battle against marijuana.

It's a battle that, among other flaws, has jammed our prisons so tightly,
states are releasing hardened criminals to make room for pot dealers who
get mandatory long sentences.

The same week we buried Futrell, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors
voted to put a measure on the November ballot that would allow the city to
grow pot on city-owned land and distribute it to seriously ill patients who
have permission from their doctors to use it for medical purposes. City
leaders want the program to double as agriculture job training for the
unemployed. San Francisco Supervisor Mark Leno told the media he drafted
the proposal because the Drug Enforcement Administration remains determined
to close down "clubs" that distribute medical marijuana in San Francisco
and across California, the first of eight states to approve the use of
medical marijuana with the passage of Proposition 215 in 1996.

In Nevada last week, where a constitutional amendment to legalize the
possession of three ounces or less of the drug will be on the November
ballot, a poll was released that showed voters evenly divided on the issue,
with 44 percent of them backing the initiative and 46 percent opposed to it.

While Futrell scanned the fields from his plane, riders on New York subways
were reading National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML)
ads featuring a quotation from New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who,
when asked whether he had ever smoked marijuana replied, "You bet I did.
And I enjoyed it."

So why are politicians like Bloomberg still fighting the war on drugs? And
why is so much of that war focused on marijuana rather than on the harder,
actually harmful drugs?

Most Americans would probably be surprised to learn that according to FBI
statistics, in 2000, nearly half of the 1.57 million drug arrests in this
country -- 734,497 --were for marijuana. Of those, 646,042 people were
arrested for possession.

And these aren't hardened street thugs who are, shall we say, in
possession. In a recent survey by Partnership for a Drug Free America, 15
percent of couples with children admitted to smoking marijuana in the last
year. Their children are smoking, too, and in greater numbers than they
are. According to a recently released Monitoring the Future study conducted
for the government by the University of Michigan's Institute for Social
Research, a survey of 44,300 high school students revealed that 49 percent
of 12th graders had used marijuana at some time.

This isn't to suggest that smoking marijuana is a good idea, or that anyone
should try it. But it's pretty obvious that, try as we might to stop its
cultivation, distribution and use, the drug is here to stay. And with
Canadian officials poised to decriminalize possession and loosen their drug
laws, Asa Hutchinson, the director of the US Drug Enforcement
Administration, predicted that more Canadian-grown pot would end up south
of the border in the coming years, which is not to say that it isn't
popular here already. According to media reports, a spokesman for the Drug
Enforcement Administration last week singled out the potent Canadian bud as
particularly prevalent in the United States.

British officials who recently relaxed their country's marijuana laws have
finally figured out that pursuing marijuana arrests is a waste of the
valuable time of talented law enforcement officers and prosecutors who are
already stretched thin. I'd rather their time be spent on rapists,
burglars, pedophiles, terrorists and other miscreants whose crimes truly
damage the innocent people they prey upon.

A sane reaction to Officer Futrell's tragic death would be for us to take a
hard look at the prices being paid for this completely futile battle. This
latest death, one more death in our supposed war against drugs, is finally
one too many.