. .:::::. .::::::::. ...:::::::::.. :::::::::::: ..:::::::::::::::::.. ::::: :::: .::: ::::::: :::. :::::. : :: ::::: :: :::::::. : ::: : :::::::::. ::: :::::::: ::: ::::: ::::: : :::: ::::: oxic :::......:::: hock .:::::::. ::::::::::: ::::::::::: ::::::::: 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