Should we just legalize drugs?
Today's column doesn't suggest legalization of heroin, cocaine and marijuana, but I am headed in that direction. I have read a lot about this subject and spoken to hundreds of people about it. Lately I've heard compelling arguments for legalization from long-time Baltimore trial attorney Billy Murphy and Jack Cole, executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. (Jack was in Baltimore last spring and debated the subject with a female prosecutor; someone who was there told me Jack "cleaned her clock.")
Here's today's first reader e-mail on the subject:
I read in the Sun the other day Willie Nelson and his band were stopped by the police and he was issued a citation for possessing marijuana. The police found 1 and 1/2 pounds of it. A citation. What would have happened to Willie and the boys if they had been stopped in Baltimore? Or if Willie & company were Blacks stopped by Baltimore Police with a pound and a half. We both know what would have happened. We need to take the crime out of drug use. In Switzerland the junkies were once a huge problem in the needle parks. The Swiss decided to provide heroin free to junkies if they came in for treatment. Needle parks disappeared. Junkies got treatment and counseling. The government put the drug dealers out of business. People stopped dying at the hands of dealers and bad drugs. Every addict is now registered. Every addict is counseled every time they come in to the clinic for heroin to take the methadone treatment. The program remains a huge success. It will unfortunately never happen here. It's too practical. Too logical. Our war on drugs was lost long ago because our leaders don't get it. Our tactics are failed. I may be a conservative, but I am a practical one. And Willie better steer clear of this town!
Comments
Drugs in the US should be legally sold. There are too many resources aimed at trying to stop the drug trade. The thing is, why are drugs illegal? What makes drugs worst than alcohol and cigarettes? The government tried to ban alcohol, and we all know what happened then. If drugs were not illegal the sale of them would be an income instead of the expenditure it currently is (more police, prisons, courts, and LIVES). We would not have drug turf battles. We would not have shootouts with police. We would have police available to stop crimes committed against people. We would have a place where people are responsible for the risk they take. That sounds like a place where I would want to live.
Posted by: Troy | September 21, 2006 9:36 AM
The only way to effectively deal with the drug cartels is to put them out of business. The only way this can be accomplished is to regulate, control and tax the products that they deal in.
And this can only be accomplished with legalization. Only legal products of any kind can be regulated, controlled and taxed by
any government.
Of course, the drug war cheerleaders will claim that legalizing our now illegal drugs will be giving into the drug dealers and drug lords.
When we re-legalized alcohol in 1933 did we give into the alcohol
cartels? No. We put them out of business.
Arresting and jailing a drug dealer or even the head of a drug cartel has the effect similar to cutting off the top of a weed. It will grow
back--stronger than ever.
The only way to get rid of any weed is to kill the root--and the root of our drug problem is: prohibition.
Posted by: Kirk Muse | September 21, 2006 1:56 PM
The reason drugs are illegal is because the government makes more money off them if they are illegal. If the 1 and 1/2 pounds was found on any non celebrity then they would be charged with trafficing, at which point all their assets and cash would be forfeited to the state as illegal profits. Homes, cars, money for free. Not to mention that the billions in drug sales have to be legitimized, hence laundering money. A large percentage of that money is given to buisnesses that launder the money, thus kick starting profit margins on Wall Street with the soft money. So you think all this money is not holding drugs in the illegal status? The governemnt doesn't give a rats ass about all the people suffering from the effects of drugs being illegal. They want their money.
Posted by: Brandon Furr | September 21, 2006 2:01 PM
Kudos to Dan for tellin' it like it is - and how it should be!
Nothing good or healthy or productive ever comes from drug abuse.
And, just becasue it has become such a rampant (dare I say popular?) "thing" in our culture........doesn't automatically make it something to legalize.........or......legitimize!
Posted by: Mary Irene | September 21, 2006 8:36 PM
I am a physician and believe that legalizing drugs is a way to catering to "cartels" of sorts. I agree with Mary that legalizing drug abuse is not the way to fight it. And, neither is detention. Dan hit it on the head with making treatment available. Addicts need support and behavioral changes. This is the only way to ensure long-term recovery for these people.
Posted by: Mel | September 21, 2006 8:46 PM
I think that drugs should be legal because it may not be appealing to individuals anymore you have the potential of losing street credibility the government isn't losing out because they tax everything!!!
Posted by: CJ | September 24, 2006 11:42 AM