Opinion: War on drugs being fought on the wrong front
By John Stossel
Unlike Bill Clinton, President Obama admits he inhaled!. “Frequently,” he said. “That was the point.”
People laugh when politicians talk about their drug use. The audience laughed during a 2003 CNN Democratic presidential primary debate when John Kerry, John Edwards and Howard Dean admitted smoking weed.
Yet those same politicians oversee a cruel system that now stages SWAT raids on people’s homes more than 100 times a day. People die in these raids — some weren’t even the intended targets of the police.
John Stossel
Neill Franklin once led such raids. The 33-year Maryland police veteran, now executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, locked up hundreds of people for drugs and felt good about it.
“We really thought that these drugs made people evil,” he told me.
But 10 years ago Franklin decided that drugs — even hard drugs — do much less harm to Americans than does the drug war.
“Drugs can be — and are in many cases — problematic. But the policies that we have in place to prohibit their use are 10 times more problematic.”
The raids helped change his mind. “We end up with kids being shot … search warrants being served on the wrong home, innocent people on the other side of the door thinking that they are protecting their home.”
And the level of drug use remains about the same.
Still, most Americans support the drug war. Paul Chabot, White House drug adviser to Presidents George W. Bush and Clinton, told me: “We should be kicking down more doors. … They’re kicking the door of somebody who’s a violent person.”
Violent? People who get high are rarely violent. The violence occurs because when something’s illegal, it is sold only on the black market. And that causes crime. Drug dealers can’t just call the cops if someone tries to steal their supply. So they form gangs and arm themselves to the teeth.
“We have the violence of these gangs competing for market share, and people get hurt,” said Franklin.
Especially kids. Drug gangs constantly look for new recruits.
“Some of these gangs have better recruitment programs than Fortune 500 companies. They know what to say to kids.”
People think that if drugs were legal, there would be more recruiting of kids. Franklin says the opposite is true.
“Prohibition causes that. We don’t have kids on the corner (saying), ‘Pssst, I got a fifth of Jack Daniel’s.'”
Kids rarely peddle liquor, and there’s little violence around liquor sales because alcohol is legal. There was lots of violence before 1933, but that was because Prohibition forbade liquor sales. Prohibition gave us Al Capone.
“Organized crime existed well before Prohibition,” Chabot replied.
That’s true. But much less of it. The murder rate rose when alcohol was banned. It dropped when Prohibition was repealed.
“If we were to do away with our drug laws … we know drug usage numbers will skyrocket,” Chabot said.
But we don’t know that.
It’s logical to assume that, were it not for drug prohibition, drug abuse would be rampant. But 10 years ago, Portugal decriminalized every drug — crack, heroin, you name it. The number of abusers actually declined.
Joao Goulao, Portugal’s top drug official, said that before decriminalization “we had a huge problem with drug use … around 100,000 people hooked on heroin.”
Then they started treating drug use more like a parking ticket. People caught with drugs get a slap on the wrist, sometimes a fine.
Independent studies have found the number of people in Portugal who say they regularly do drugs stayed about the same. And the best news, said Goulao: “Addiction itself decreased a lot.”
At first, police were skeptical of the law, but Joao Figueira, chief inspector of Lisbon’s drug unit, told me that decriminalization changed lots of minds.
“The level of conflicts on the street are reduced. Drug-related robberies are reduced. And now the police are not the enemies of the consumers!”
And teen drug use is down.
All good news. But in American and in most of the world, the drug war continues, thousands are murdered and in ghettos the police are enemies of the people.
Governments should wake up and learn something from the Portuguese.
John Stossel is host of “Stossel” on the Fox Business Network. He’s the author of “Give Me a Break” and of “Myth, Lies, and Downright Stupidity”.
Drugs won the Drug War.
Drugs can still be found in prisons. The right wing crusaders lead by Regan could not have failed any more.
What is even more insane, is that under Regan, tons of cocaine entered this country to fund illegal wars in South America. At the cost of American lives and social values.
Corporations, politicians, and law enforcement profit from the war on drugs. Even though they have completely failed in every way possible. The war on drugs is also racist, as is evident in the crack cocaine laws.
The right wing ideologues and the people who buy into their lies are all retarded. Not as in ‘mentally disabled’, but as in sense that one can do things to their brain that retards their ability to function as rational human beings and be a part of a society that seeks to become better for the benefit of all people.
Some drugs, such as marijuana and especially psychedelics, enlighten people and strengthen their BS filter. Which is not conducive to an easily controlled population of sheep. That is why they are illegal. Not because they are bad for you and society as a whole, but because they might enable you to really think about the legitimacy of those who are in power. The people who expand their minds do not become more convinced that they should work really hard at their BS jobs so that they can be better consumers who purchase more BS material goods.
People who do too many drugs are morons. But the people who believe in the war on drugs and support our current drug policy, are even more dangerous morons.
I love the irony of how our country demonizes mexico for narco-terrorism and then spends billions of dollars on drug policies that end up making the drug trade even more profitable. A 1% decrease from the drug supply seized in the country equals an increase in profits of more than 1% for the smugglers…
Your “facts” are a little sketchy. The White House has been battling drugs since Nixon, that I recall. It may have been earlier, but I wasn’t paying attention before then.
The myth that we brought in cocaine for funding (and, supposedly, to destroy inner city black life) is an oldie but a goodie. For someone who so often demands facts and proof from others, you’re not doing so well.
One thing that is definitely a fact is that the War on Drugs hasn’t worked. It has been over three decades since the war started and drugs are still everywhere. The Mexican drug cartels have grown because of the so called War on Drugs, which has raised their profits and emboldened them to the point that they feel unstoppable. It has been a complete waste of taxpayer money and should be recognized as the failure that it has been.
The drug war is a failure, except in the arena of job creation ;)
Colonel Oliver North CIA was convicted of selling Cocaine to Black youths on the streets of Los Angles and using the money to fund the Contra Rebels in Nicuragua
if you watch A&E chanels program Gangland when they inteview the Crips in Los Angles you will know what I’m talking about
the drug war here in town has failed Herion runs rampant
just like when Cocaine used to run rampant
What an interesting perspective for Mr. Stossel to take considering the source of much of the support for the Drug War over the last four decades. However, I do not recall Col. North being convicted of selling drugs. The felonies that he was convicted of were overturned through immunity rules and none of them involved drug sales. Though certainly, the program was at the very least, lacking in judgement. Nor do I see any fact presented as such by the conservation robot. Part of the problem with any discourse in our country is the lack of honesty. The Drug War is another example. Statistics are used to prove this and that constantly with no definable results.
I believe that we need simpler government, less government and fewer laws. Concentrate on what actually works, and stop the exaggeration and distortion. It appears that Portugal has tried something different and that their approach has worked. The problem is, who will be the first to propose such legislation without being demagogued by the other side, especially near elections?
THE DRUG TRADE CARTELS WOULDN’T BRING IT HERE ,IF NO ONE WASN’T BUYING IT.
U.S.A. IS THE BIGGEST COMSUMER OF ALL DRUGS ON EARTH.
I think we are the biggest consumer of just about everything, if you think about it ;) Why? is the question.
Reagan declared the failed war on drugs. Nixon developed the scheduling system putting pot on schedule 1 meaning “no medicinal value” and higher than normal punishment it has been on schedule 1 since then. Many say this was to lock up blacks as they were thought to be the primary users at that time.
The CIA was found to be involved in smuggling of drugs during Reagan it is a pretty known fact. It was covered up very poorly and several gangland drug importers were realeased from jail following thier testimony regarding thier involvment by the CIA. See “Three Way Ricky Ross” (the man who invented crack).