NEW TACTICS NEEDED IN DRUG WAR

Earlier this fall, a former Seattle police chief wrote in a Los
Angeles Times article that all drugs should be made legal in an
attempt to curb drug violence and some of its consequences - civilian
and officer deaths, a dangerous environment for officers and a
continuous federal cash commitment.

Norm Stamper, a cop for 34 years, called for legalizing all drugs -
including marijuana, heroin, cocaine, meth, psychotropics, mushrooms
and LSD. Cigarettes and alcohol are legal and prohibition was
unsuccessful, Stamper said, so it doesn't make sense for the
government to continue to try to stop illegal drug use.

I am not endorsing a plan to legalize all drugs in the United States -
I just think it makes sense for us to consider a different approach.
Traditional drug enforcement hasn't been successful in getting drugs
off America's streets, so a call for change is something. It isn't
practical to legalize all drugs, but aspects of the plan could work.

Drug users will always be able to find their fix. I've never used
drugs, but when I'm in my hometown, I'm sure it wouldn't take me long
to find drugs if I wanted to. If they're available and there is a
demand, then users will find a way. If a non-user like me has an idea
of where and who to go to, then users must not have too challenging of
a time.

Stamper said open drug markets have terrible effects.

"Children [are] recruited as runners, mules and lookouts; drug dealers
and innocent citizens [are] shot dead in firefights between rival
traffickers; dedicated narcotics officers [are] tortured or killed in
the line of duty," he said. "Prisons [are] filled with nonviolent drug
offenders ... all because we like our drugs - and can't have them
without breaking the law."

Government and law officials should consider certain aspects of
Stamper's suggestion. If alcohol and cigarettes are legal, isn't it
possible for other drugs to be legalized too? Medical marijuana use
has been pushed for years, but Bush has recently turned it down. Maybe
he knows something I don't, but if a person with a medical problem
like AIDS or cancer wants to use marijuana medicinally, it shouldn't
be the government's place to say no.

A different approach to drug enforcement would result in serious
changes. America has been fighting a war on drugs for decades and
spends about $69 billion annually, as Stamper cited a study, to try to
combat drug trafficking and use. What if all that money was spent in
other ways to improve society?

"We're making more arrests for drug offenses than for murder,
manslaughter, forcible rape and aggravated assault combined," Stamper
said.

Many of those drug users could certainly be the same who commit those
more serious crimes, though. Jail time may or may not be the answer in
correcting drug use in the United States, but our judicial system
certainly is trying. In 1980, 580,000 Americans were arrested on drug
charges. The number jumped to 1,678,000 by 2003. That increases costs
on policing and correctional levels by a lot.

Legalization would reduce street crime related to drugs. If drugs are
sold legally over the counter at drug stores, users and dealers might
not need to resort to stealing or killing to support their addiction.
When drugs are dealt in the shadows, violence and other terrible
things are bound to happen. When drugs are bought and sold in the
bright lights of pharmacies, use can be monitored and carried out
consistently and safely - or at least as safe as drug buying can be.

If the price of legalizing drugs is marginally more users, it could be
a price the United States is willing to pay. If people aren't going to
use drugs, they wouldn't be much more likely to if use was suddenly
legal. One drug information web site says there is a higher percentage
of marijuana users in the United States than in the Netherlands, where
marijuana is sold legally. I haven't done drugs because I don't want
to, not because of the risk I see with doing it illegally. Even if
heroin is available at CVS, I'm not buying it.

That brings up an important issue - would pharmacies want to stock
what are now illegal drugs? I'm not sure. That could create a new
series of problems. Pharmacies could see theft attempts like with
OxyContin a few years ago, but there must be solutions. There are
important guidelines with Stamper's legalization idea. All advertising
would be banned (alcohol and cigarette advertisements are already
regulated or banned in one form or another), and a new government
regulatory agency would monitor for consistent standards of
sanitation, potency and purity. Private companies would compete for
licenses to "cultivate, harvest, manufacture, package and peddle
drugs," he said.

Lastly, like with cigarettes, newly-legal drugs could (and should) be
heavily taxed, creating a revenue stream for drug abuse counseling.
Driving under the influence of drugs would still be illegal, as would
any other illegal acts done under the influence. The drug industry
would need to be monitored in much the same way that liquor and
tobacco sales are today. Instead of trying to combat illegal drugs -
and the growing, trading, buying and selling - the newly created
agency would focus instead on regulating an industry that would be
much easier to monitor. Personal creation of drugs would still be
illegal, and so could the underground drug trade, too.

The sooner government and law officials recognize how drug use may be
impossible to stop, the sooner the United States could get to at least
lessening the way it harms innocent people and the police officers who
try to protect us. Maybe legalizing drugs is not the answer; maybe the
risks are too great and maybe the idea as a whole is impractical.
Either way, it would be in the best interest of the United States for
our lawmakers to contemplate a new approach to what is America's
longest ongoing war.