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presents
Pot Reform
by
Fetal Juice
Toxic File #78
States spent approximately $10 billion on
drug-related law enforcement, while drug criminals earned at least
$110 billion in profits. Meanwhile drug-related crime, especially in
our cities, simply got worse.
The harder we try to use criminal law to stamp out drug abuse,
the greater the financial incentives become to deal drugs. Thus our
drug policies aren't just failing, they're self-defeating.
Since 1914 the policy of the United States has been to treat the
use of drugs in this country as a criminal offence. In 1936 August
Vollmer, a former president of the International Association of Chiefs
of Police, said, "Drug addiction is not a police problem: it has never
been and never can be solved by policemen. Drug abuse is a medical
problem, and if there is a solution it will be discovered by
scientific and medical experts."
Our strategy of using criminal law to end drug abuse is a
mistake. We need to revise our approach, enlist new leaders, and
begin again. Although the criminal justice system should still play a
role in controlling drugs, our policies should focus on public health
strategies.
As former state's attorney for the city of Baltimore and a
veteran of the war against drugs. I know that our strategy hasn't
worked. Nevertheless, we can beat the traffickers and control our
complex drug problem if we're willing to substitute common sense for
myth, rhetoric, and blind persistence.
We must begin thinking about decriminalizing some drugs. We
haven't made cigarettes illegal. Yet according to a report from the
Department of Health and Human Services, cigarettes account for up to
350,000 deaths a year. Instead we have left it to the public health
system to address the problems related to nicotine addiction, and
fewer people are now smoking.
As for alcohol, we tried to make it illegal and learned a painful
lesson: if the goverment dosen't regulate substances of abuse like
alcohol, we bring a reign of terror down on our cities. It is time we
learned the lesson of Prohibition and eliminated the only reason drug
criminals stay in business - billons of dollars in profits. This
could be done by bringing our population of addicts to the public
health system and out of the dark alleys, where the price, quality,
and quantity of drugs are controlled by organized crime.
Providing drugs to addicts under medical auspicies is a sensible
policy. In the early 1900's the Shreveport Clinic in Shreveport,
Louisiana, distributed narcotics to people who had become dependent on
drugs. In an investigation of the clinic in 1921, Federal District
Judge George Jack warnbed that he would oppose any steps toward a
discontinuance of the clinic, because "it had lessened crime in the
city." The chief of police, the sheriff, and the United States
marshal in Shreveport all agreed that the clinic helped reduce crime.
Other societies have successfully adopted public health
approaches to controlling drug abuse. The Dutch goverment, for
instance, has merged various programs related to the abuse of
addictive substances under one branch of their health ministry. Under
the ministry's direction, the Dutch have established an effective
needle-exchange program for intravenous drug users (used needles are
exchanged for new ones), and drug treatment is available for those who
want it. On the enforcement side, the Dutch have decriminalized the
possession and sale of marijuana, while continuing to enforce laws
against trafficking in cocain and heroin. The purpose of the Dutch
drug policy is to reduce the risks associated with drug use, such as
blood-borne diseases like AIDS and hepatitis, for those addicts who
won't or can't give up their addiction and to avoid placing an
excessive burden on the criminal justice system. A decline in
marijuana use as occurred since the Dutch decriminalization policy
began.
Led by the Mersey Regional Drug Training and Information Centre
in Liverpool, the British have also used health strategies to
effectively confront drug abuse. The Mersey clinic offers a broad
range of help to addicts, including a needle-exchange program,
prescriptions for heroin and cocaine; and methadone and drug-free
treatment, such as counseling upon a demand. It is believed the
availability of treatment has helped prevent the spread of HIV
infection in the clinic's population.
To redefine our national drug policies, I recommend we eliminate
criminal penalties for marijuana possession and redirect funding from
law enforcement efforts to drug-abuse prevention and education
programs. We need to pass laws that permit health professionals to
distribute methadone, heroin, and cocaine to addicts as part of
supervised maintenance or treatment programs. We need to establish an
independent commission to study substances that are abused and based
on their potential harm make recommendations on how they should be
regulated. Finally, the war on drugs should be led by the surgeon
general, not by the attorney general.
If all this were accomplished, we could look forward to a
brighter future for the vast majority of people who live in our
communities. Finding ways to confront and control the problems
associated with drug abuse would provide the American people with a
safer, stabler, more productive society.
(c)July 1990 Fetal Juice/Toxic Shock