US OR: OPED: Unjust, Harmful War On Drugs Should Be Ended

Perhaps it's time to take a hard look and consider our drug laws.  The legal injustices are prevalent.  The punishments are too unfair.

Take the case of Norm and Pat Major, an elderly middle-class with three children and eight grandchildren, active members of their church and pillars of their community, who faced prison, confiscation of their home and fines because Norm grew and used medicinal marijuana.

Over a period of time, starting with a work place injury, Norm Major had more than 80 surgeries, which build up increasing tolerance for legally prescribed drugs.  At one time, he required 600 milligram doses of morphine every three to four hours.

The effect of the legal drugs was so detrimental to Major's health that doctors advised him to try marijuana and eliminate morphine.  He did. Marijuana relieved his pain without the morphine side effects so he started growing plants in his basement.

Subsequently, Norm's pot growing operation was discovered and he and his wife were prosecuted and sentenced under a plea agreement.

The punishment? The Majors are on probation and must pay $23,500 to avoid prison and forfeiture of their home of 32 years.  Contrast this with probation, community service and a $6,000 fine levied recently against a councilman in the same county who sodomized a 14-year-old girl.  The sentences are completely out of proportion.

The Majors have harmed no one.  They represent no threat to society at large.  They simply grew marijuana plants for Norm's personal use in alleviating pain.

The councilman, however, is a child molester who admits to two counts of sodomy with a minor.  The history of child molesters is that they do not stop - even after imprisonment.  Treatment is almost always ineffectual.  Yet this local monster, who represents a genuine threat to children, has been released back into the community with a slap on the hand.

This is a travesty of justice.

If one looks at Majors' case, which is typical of most drug cases, there is no rational excuse for prosecuting such peaceful, harmless people.  There are no victims involved.

Prosecute those who drive under the influence of drugs; they endanger the safety of others.  Prosecute those who sell drugs to minors; they endanger the health and safety of children.  Prosecute those who steal to support their drug habit; theft and burglary violate private property rights.  And prosecute those guilty of drug-induced disorderly conduct or violence; against others.

But don't prosecute those who, for whatever reason, are using drugs in a nonthreatening manner and who do NOT endanger public safety.

While drug use may be unhealthy and a vice or a sin, as some insist, it is not a matter of legal concern.  Drug use is better treated by doctors than policemen.  It is better to deal with education, social ostracism, persuasion, treatment and debate - not imprisonment.  Prison is no solution since drugs are prevalent in prisons.

Yet nicotine smoking, a far more addicting drug than heroin, according to former Health, Education and Welfare Secretary Joseph Califano, has decreased because of widespread public education about its unhealthy effects.

In another area, the drug war is also unjust.  It allows the government to seize property that has been used in the commission of certain selected illegal acts, even before the defendants have been convicted of any crime.

Many police departments routinely seize the automobiles and bank accounts of those who transport illegal drugs because of the forfeiture money involved.

Civil forfeiture cases are vindictive and unwarranted.  They allow many courts to reap handsome monetary rewards by confiscating the property of alleged violators.

There is yet another reason for ending the drug war.  It entices the children to enter into the underworld of gangs and drug traffickers.  When a child can drop out of school and make more money selling marijuana than his father makes, it is hard to keep him focused on planning a different career.

It is kids who sell to kids.  Gangs selling drugs can now afford weapons and cars that they lacked before the drug war made it so lucrative to peddle contraband.  Now, instead of street fights we have drive-by shootings.  We have focused on ending the lucrative supply of drugs instead of reducing the demand through public information programs.

Further, taxpayer money is misspent housing nonviolent drug users in prison.  More prisons would not be necessary if we could legalize all drug use.  Drug users and sellers are generally not violent criminals, but they represent almost 50 percent of prison populations.  This is wasted tax money.

Our greatest concern, however, ought not to with the profits derived from the drug war ( by both the traffickers and the enforcement agencies alike) but with the principle of individual rights involved - the right of all adult individuals to live their lives in whatever manner they choose so long as they do not violate the equal rights of others.

Only the Libertarian Party has bitten this hard political bullet.  For 27 years, it has staunchly upheld the personal right of American adults to choose what they consume, while, at the same time.  demanding they accept responsibility for their actions and never never initiate violence against others.

Citizens concerned with legal justice and the increasing costs of prisons should start on the road back to rational justice by supporting legislation to allow the medicinal use of all drugs; introducing legislation to decriminalize all victimless crimes; and ending forfeiture laws which encourage misdirected police arrests of peaceful, honest citizens.