Drug War Must Go

Walter Cronkite agrees: it's time to consider alternatives to the Drug War

opinion by Allison Bigelow, Free Press contributor

he war on drugs is a fraud! A two page ad was placed the week of June 8-10 in the New York Times that pointed this out. It was signed by over 500 prominent individuals including former U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar, former Secretary of State George Shultz, Walter Cronkite, current head of the NAACP Kweisi Mfume, and former U.S. Attorney General Nickolas Katzenbach. The ad stated that the drug war is now causing more harm than drug abuse itself.

The Times ad also said "U.N. agencies estimate the annual revenue generated by the illegal drug industry at $400 billion, or the equivalent of roughly eight percent of total international trade. This industry has empowered organized criminals, corrupted governments at all levels, eroded internal security, stimulated violence, and distorted both economic markets and moral values. These are the consequences not of drug use per se, but of decades of failed and futile drug war policies."

"In many parts of the world, drug war politics impede public health efforts to stem the spread of HIV, hepatitis and other infectious diseases," the ad said. "Human rights are violated, environmental assaults perpetrated and prisons inundated with hundreds of thousands of drug law violators. Scarce resources better expended on health, education, and economic development are squandered on ever more expensive interdiction efforts. Realistic proposals to reduce drug-related crime, disease and death are abandoned in favor of rhetorical proposals to create drug-free societies."

Several days later, in written testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey warned, "There is a carefully camouflaged, exorbitantly funded, well-heeled elitist group whose ultimate goal is to legalize drug use in the United States." McCaffrey went on to say, "Through a slick misinformation campaign, these individuals perpetuate a fraud on the American people, a fraud so devious that even some of the nation's most respected newspapers and sophisticated media are capable of echoing their falsehoods."

It is hilarious McCaffrey can say this, especially because truth and justice are the cornerstones of the legalization movement. Legalizers are against selling crack on the street corner to kids. In fact, the market the drug war creates results in crack on the corner not only sold to kids but often sold by kids.

It's been shown that education and treatment are seven times more cost effective than arrest and incarceration for substance addiction, yet we continue to spend more tax dollars on prisons than treatment. A significant portion of federal, state and local prisoners, are non-violent drug offenders, mostly first time offenders. Due to the War on Drugs, we have become the world's leading jailer.

The average sentence for a first time, non-violent drug offender is longer than the average sentence for rape, child molestation, bank robbery, or manslaughter. As our prisons rapidly fill to bursting, rapists and murderers are being given early release to make room for "no parole" drug offenders.

The political climate created by the drug war has doctors finding themselves unable to prescribe marijuana, which has been known to be an effective medicine, and forces them to limit the amount of pain medication that suffering and dying patients receive.

The DEA approved thousands of acres of marijuana to be sprayed with Round-up in 11 states over the next ten years. Test spraying of Round-up in Hawaii has brought people together in opposition because they have seen a large increase in the cancer rate since the spraying. Other poisonous chemicals are being used in Columbia. The DEA feels that the importance of this mission makes any environmental consequenses of this project secondary. Eduardo Verano, Columbia's environmental minister, contends its use will only increase deforestation by pushing coca growers deeper into the jungle. "We need to reconsider the benefits of the chemical war," said Verano. "The more you fumigate, the more the farmers plant. If you fumigate one hectare, they'll grow coca on two more."

The battle lines have been drawn. Intelligent people have called for sanity and reason to be restored to our decision making about how we control drugs. The drug warriors who insist we continue our failed policy have an opportunity to rethink their position. Are they not responsible for the murders and deaths that the drug war is causing?

Allison Bigelow has been active in legalization efforts in the Seattle area.