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                     ENDING OUR DRUG NIGHTMARE
        A Humane Solution That Will MaKe Our Streets Safe
                       By Jarret Wollstein

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America is living through a drug nightmare. Drug-related murders and
violent assaults are skyrocketing. Drugs are ever more potent and
deadly. Drug gangs are spreading their power to every city and town.
Police are being corrupted, courts are overcrowded, and prisons are
bursting at the seams. The lure of big drug profits is turning children
into pushers and cops into crooks.

Every month the War on Drugs escalates. More money is spent, more drugs
are seized, and penalties for drug use become more severe. Yet illegal
drugs are still plentiful.

There's a simple reason why America is not winning the War on Drugs. We
have been fighting the wrong enemy. We have been told that the cause of
our drug nightmare is drug sellers and users. The real cause is drug
criminalization.

PROHIBITION REVISITED
This is not the first time government has tried to save Americans from
themselves. In 1919, the 18th Amendment prohibited the manufacture, sale
or transportation of alcoholic beverages.

Suddenly honest, responsible Americans who just wanted a drink, were
turned into criminals. Respectable bars became underground speak-easys,
and legitimate liquor manufacturers were replaced by criminal
bootleggers.

Gang shootouts became commonplace. There was massive bribery of police
and judges. Criminals who made illegal booze paid little attention to
quality, and many consumers went blind or died from tainted products.

Eventually politicians were forced to admit the futility of trying to
legislate morality. Liquor was harmful -- but liquor prohibition was
even worse. In 1933, Prohibition was repealed.

DRUGS AND VIOLENCE
Today, liquor is legal and there are no longer any shootouts over kegs
of beer or barrels of gin. But today the disastrous consequences of
Prohibition are being repeated with drugs.

Before President Reagan's all-out War on Drugs, Americas crime rate had
been declining, but with the event of the new wave of drug laws, violent
crimes have increased sharply -- 32% between 1976 and 1985. Now our
cities have become battlefields.

The more the government suppresses drug use, the more drug violence
increases. Drug criminalization results in huge black market profits and
the domination of the drug trade by criminal gangs. As gangs battle each
other and the police over turf, violence is the inevitable outcome. In
addition, the high price of drugs often forces addicts to steal to
maintain their habits. For example, the street price of heroin has risen
as high as 5,000 times hospital costs. Finally, the stigmatizing and
arresting of social drug users forces them out of legitimate employment
and into a life of crime. Eighty percent of violent street crimes are
now drug-related.

No matter how many Americans are arrested for drug use, no matter how
many pushers are put in jail, the War on Drugs cannot succeed. Look at
any major American prison with its human cages, iron gates, armed
guards, and continual surveillance. Drugs are still readily available in
prison. If brutal repression cannot keep drugs out of our prisons, then
turning our entire country into a prison will not keep drugs off of our
streets.

THE DANGER OF DRUGS
The violence associated with illegal drugs is certainly real, but how
great is the medical danger of the drugs themselves? In 1988 over 48,000
Americans died from alcohol abuse. Over 400,000 died from
cigarette-related illnesses. Less than 3,000 died from illegal drugs.
Compared to tobacco and alcohol, marijuana, the most commonly used
illegal drug, is not addicting and there has never been a case recorded
of anyone dying from an overdose. Illegal drugs are not good or safe,
but they cause far less medical harm than do alcohol and nicotine.

Intoxicants have been used throughout recorded history. It seems that
the desire to "get high" is as fundamental as the sex drive. Given human
nature, the most humane policy would seem to be to educate people about
the risks of intoxicants, encourage moderation, and make sure that
intoxicants are as safe as possible. But such rational policies are made
impossible by drug criminalization.

Criminalization is also the cause of the vast majority of "drug
overdose" deaths. Because drugs are illegal, there is no quality control
or any way to sue sellers of adulterated drugs. Needles and other drug
paraphernalia are also illegal, so hard-core users share "works",
which is a major cause of the spread of the AIDS epidemic.

Some 40 million Americans now use illegal drugs occasionally --
particularly marijuana. Most who use illegal drugs do so responsibly and
in moderation. The small percentage of drug users who are addicts
deserve our compassion and help, not persecution and punishment.

THE INHUMANITY OF THE DRUG WAR
Poor, largely black, inner-city communities are particularly sad victims
of the War on Drugs. Few poor teenagers will take entry-level jobs at $4
or $5 an hour when they can make thousands a week selling drugs. Failing
to acquire job skills early in life, they may end up on welfare their
entire lives -- if they are not killed in drug shoot-outs. The
irresistible attraction of a profitable life of crime can only be ended
by taking the profit out of drugs -- by making them legal.

Other victims of the War on Drugs are middle class Americans fired from
their jobs for casual drug use; children treated as criminals in schools
by being subjected to searches of their lockers and even their bodies
for drugs; glaucoma and cancer victims denied medicinal use of
marijuana; and fishermen who have had their boats confiscated because
tiny amounts of marijuana were found.

THE WAR ON DRUGS AND LIBERTY
Our proudest heritage as Americans is our freedom to live our lives as
we see fit. That birthright is now being destroyed in the name of
winning the War on Drugs.

* Under "Zero Tolerance" which targets casual drug users, the government
has seized thousands of cars, boats, and other vehicles -- even if a few
grains of marijuana or cocaine are found. These seizures take place
without search warrants, without probably cause, and without due
process. Most vehicles seized are sold at public auction, with the
proceeds frequently used to hire more drug police and buy more weapons.

* Under Washington D.C.'s "Operation Clean Sweep", police pull up in
front of stores and restaurants in drug corridors and force everyone to
lie on the ground while they are searched. The few who protest or
resist, are beaten or shot.

* In New York City, homeless shelters are being converted into jails.
Former Drug Czar William Bennett proposed building prison barges on the
Potomac, in the shadow of the Washington Monument.

* Under California's Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, SWAT teams
search backyards by helicopter. If even a single uncultivated plant is
found, a house is subject to immediate confiscation. The owner has 20
days to sue the government to get his property back.

* Originally the "War on Drugs" was a metaphor. Now it is reality. In
December 1989, 20,000 U.S. troops invaded Panama, capturing strongman
Manuel Noriega -- at a cost of 1,000 innocent Panamanians killed, and in
total disregard of international law. A few months later, under heavy
world criticism, the U.S. hastily aborted a plan to blockade Colombia,

* In July 1990, NEWSWEEK magazine revealed a secret Pentagon plan for a
major invasion of South America, to destroy the drug trade. Such a war
could result in untold hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties, the
economic destruction of a continent, sharp increases in taxes, and
double digit inflation at home. And there is no guarantee it would
succeed. The government's "holy crusade" attitude toward drugs has
become a paramount threat to peace, freedom, and prosperity.

LEGALIZATION AND DRUG USE?
There is no evidence that drug legalization would cause a dramatic
increase in use. Today, anyone who wants drugs can get them. With huge
profits created by criminalization gone, most pushers would go out of
business, and the incentive to sell drugs to minors would be largely
eliminated.

Drug legalization would also end the "forbidden fruit" appeal of illegal
drugs. In 1975, Alaska legalized private use of marijuana. A 1982 study
by the University of Alaska showed that 4% of Alaskan students used
marijuana every day, compared to 6.3% of all American high school
seniors. Students use marijuana less when its legal.

ENDING OUR DRUG NIGHTMARE
For decades the government has been waging a futile war on drugs. With
every new crackdown, drug violence and brutality increase -- and our
freedom declines. If drugs are legalized, drug use would become just
another vice, like smoking or drinking.

Legalization would end most drug violence, brutalization of drug users,
corruption of police, clogging of courts and prisons, and most deaths
from drug overdoses. Legalization would free social resources for
efficient drug education and compassionate treatment of addicts.

Drugs should be legalized not because drugs are good or beneficial, but
because drugs do less harm to our lives, our property, and our humanity,
than drug laws.

Drug use without repression is a tolerable evil. An endless and futile
War on Drugs is an intolerable assault upon the very essence of America.
The War on Drugs is the cause of our drug nightmare, not the solution to
it. America will be safe only when we are once more free and drugs are
legal.

                         RECOMMENDED READING

Beyond The War On Drugs (Steven Wisotsky) ..................... $16.95
The Crisis in Drug Prohibition (David Boaz) ...................  $8.00
Dealing With Drugs (Ronald Hamowy) ............................ $14.95
The Great Drug War (Arnold S. Trebach) ........................ $22.50
Licit & Illicit Drugs (Edward M. Brecher) ..................... $14.95
Drug Prohibition/Conscience of Nations (Trebach) ............... $9.95

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