BUFFALO NEWS

FEBRUARY 2, 1997

WHY A FEDERAL JUDGE CONCLUDES DRUG LEGALIfiATION IS THE WAY TO GO

As a judge and prosecutor, I have been involved with the prosecution and enforcment of drug laws for over 30 yers. Although it is my obligation to enforce the law to the best of my ability, which I have always done, I have been convinced for some time that our present course of enforcement is a failure and cannot succeed.

Let us face the grim facts. The "War on Drugs" is lost and cannot be won. In spite of the expenditure of billions of dollars, we have failed to reduce consumption, to reduce violent crime, to cut importation, and to lessen huge profits gained by organized criminals. We have repeated the mistakes of Prohibition, with far more serious consequences. Criminal sanction has made for increased drug use rather than the opposite.

We cannot convince poor peasant farmers in South America not to grow cocaine. Living a marginal existence, drug cultivation is a necessity. We cannot stop importation of illegal drugs. The Government Accounting Office found that the Air Force spent over $3 million over a 15-month period, but ony was able to effect 8 seizures.

Although we arrest over 700,000 individuals per year, the current prison population far oustrips existing facilities. Each time someone is incarcerated, another steps into the breach and begins to deal; there is a bottomless pool of street dealers. Imprisonment has failed to deter drug traffic.

Although the cost of the drug war runs in excess of $100 billion, this is only part of the expense, because no estimate can be made of the related crimes. Forty percent of all property crime is fostered by the drug trade. Almost every  day innocent bystanders, including small children, are gunned down in the drug war.

Our decision to stamp out the drug trade through enforcement is odd, because illegal drugs are far less dangerous than the legal drugs that people consume every day.

Alcohol is associated with 40 percent of all traffic deaths and 54 percent of violent crimes. Nicotine, the most addictive drug, is the cause of over 3 million deaths per year worldwide. Both tobacco and alcohol are far more lethal. The outcry that young people who experiment with marijuana will move on to harder drugs is a red herring. Millions have experimentd with marijuana, but only a small percentage have gone on to other drugs. Alcohol causes up to 100,000 deaths per year and tobacco about 300,000, but only a few thousand die from drug use.

If we continue our present course, this situation will get worse. At present, we have more individuals in prison per 100,000 of our population than any other country in the world. We jail people more than two or three times the rate of the closest nation. We cannot afford to continue to spend millions yearly to build and staff more prisons.

When the elimination of Prohibition was suggested, many said that if liquor laws were lifted, alcoholism would increase and crime would flourish. Perhaps in a short period after Prohibition there was an increase ind drinking, but then it leveled off and Al Capone-type gang wars ceased.

Huge expenditures for enforcement, prosecution, and incarceration leave little left for education, counselilng, and treatment. This was brough home dramatically a few weeks ago when Police Lieutenant Alan F. Scioli wrote in these pages, describing his experience as a youth officer charged with the responsibility of helping youngsters plagued by drug addiction. He remeinded us that what we need are more resources to deal practially with drugs, not criminal sanctions.

As with alochol and tobacco, we should consider drug control as primarily a health problem, not a criminal one. However, we should continue to prosecute individuals who commit serious crimes. Sales to minors must be forbidden, but small-time users and dealers should be subject to alternative, non-criminal procedures. Education and counseling starting early in grade school should be provided, as well as job training and employment oopportunities.

Vietnam makes a striking example. In spite of throwing more men and millions of dollars into the fray, we finally concluded that negotiation was the only solution. The use of the world "legalization" has been demonized, just like "negotiation" was before Henry Kissinger met with the Viet Cong in Paris. Legalization is neither liberal nor conservative. Some of the main supporters of abolition are quite conservative: WIlliam F. Buckley, former Secretary of State GEorge Schultz, and many judges and police officers.

To set a new course will require careful planning. The use of cigareettes and alcohol has been reduced due to advertising and couonseling. We can do the same here. The efforts of Love Canal residents helped make substantial changes in environmental laws. Dialogue and action must begin to determine what course is to follow. Education, counseling, less use of criminal sanctions, partial legalization, and legalization are all alternatives. It is a hard road, but the present course has failed. We must begin to study, dialogue, and plan for a new effort as soon as possible.

--Judge Curtin is a member of ReconsiDer: Forum on Drug Policy

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