Pubdate: Sun, 26 May 2002
Source: Times Union (Albany, NY)
Copyright: 2002 Capital Newspapers Division of The Hearst Corporation
Contact:  http://www.timesunion.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/452
Author: Robert Sharpe

WAR ON DRUGS DOES MORE HARM THAN GOOD

The case of the Schenectady police officer convicted of drug-related 
corruption is not an isolated incident.

This insidious form of institutional corruption stretches from coast to 
coast and reaches the highest levels. The high-profile Los Angeles Police 
Department's Rampart scandal involved anti-drug officers selling drugs and 
framing gang members. A former commander of U.S. anti-drug operations in 
Colombia was found guilty of laundering the profits of his wife's heroin 
smuggling operation. Entire countries have been destabilized due to the 
corrupting influence of the illegal drug trade.

Like alcohol prohibition in the 1920s, the drug war is causing tremendous 
societal harm, while failing miserably at preventing use. Drug laws fuel 
organized crime and violence. That justifies increased drug-war spending. 
It's time to end this madness and start treating all substance abuse, legal 
or otherwise, as the public health problem it is. Jail cells are 
inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective as deterrents.

Based on findings that criminal records do more harm than marijuana, a 
majority of European Union countries have decriminalized pot. Despite harsh 
penalties and perhaps because of forbidden fruit appeal, lifetime use of 
marijuana is higher in the United States than any European country.

The war on some drugs has done little other than give rise to a massive 
prison-industrial complex.

Robert Sharpe

Program Officer Drug Policy Alliance Washington, D.C.
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