Walter Cronkite weighs in on the WoD

Pubdate: Sun, 08 Aug 2004
Source: Daily Herald, The (Provo, UT)
Copyright: 2004 The Daily Herald
Contact: rwright@heraldextra.com
Website: http://www.harktheherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1480
Author: Walter Cronkite
Note: Walter Cronkite was anchor of "CBS Evening News" for 19 years.
Note: from MAP: Walter Cronkite's column is distributed by King Features Syndicate. As other examples of newspapers printing this column are found, they will appear at this link http://www.mapinc.org/author/Cronkite
Cited: Drug Policy Alliance http://www.drugpolicy.org
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/racial.htm (Racial Issues)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?225 (Students - United States)

IT'S TIME TO REFORM THE WAR ON DRUGS

In the midst of the soaring rhetoric of the Democratic Convention, more than one speaker quoted Abraham Lincoln's first inaugural address, invoking "the better angels of our nature."

Well, there is an especially appropriate task awaiting those heavenly creatures -- a long-overdue reform of our disastrous "war on drugs. "

We should begin by recognizing its costly and inhumane dimensions. Much of the nation, in one way or another, is victimized by this failure -- including, most notably, the innocents, whose exposure to drugs is greater than ever.

This despite the fact that there are housed in federal and state prisons and local jails, on drug offenses, more than 500,000 people -- half a million people! Clearly, no punishment could be too severe for that portion of them who were kingpins of the drug trade and who ruined so many lives.
But by far the majority of these prisoners are guilty of only minor offenses, such as possessing small amounts of mar1juana. That includes people who used it only for medicinal purposes.

The cost to maintain this great horde of prisoners is more than $10 billion annually. And that's just part of the cost of this war on drugs: The federal, state and local drug-control budgets last year added up to almost $40 billion.

These figures were amassed by the Drug Policy Alliance, one of the foremost national organizations seeking to bring reason to the war on drugs and reduce substantially those caught in the terrible web of addiction.

There are awful tales of tragedy and shocking injustice hidden in those figures -- the product of an almost mindlessly draconian system called "mandatory sentencing" in which even small offenses can draw years in prison.

Thousands of women, many of them mothers of young children, are included among those minor offenders. Those children left without motherly care are the most innocent victims of the drug war and the reason some call it a "war on families" as well as on drugs.

Women are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. prison population, with almost 80 percent of them incarcerated for drug offenses. The deep perversity of the system lies in the fact that women with the least culpability often get the harshest sentences. Unlike the guilty drug dealer, they often have no information to trade for a better deal from prosecutors and might end up with a harsher sentence than the dealer gets.

Then there are women like Kimba Smith, in California, who probably knew a few things but was so terrified of her abusive boyfriend that she refused to testify against him. (Those who agree to testify, by the way, frequently are murdered before they have a chance to do so.) Ms. Smith paid for her terrified silence with a 24-year sentence!

Nonviolent first offenders, male and female, caught with only small amounts of a controlled substance frequently are given prison sentences of five to 10 years or more. As a result, the number of nonviolent offenders in the nation's prisons is filling them to overflowing, literally. The resulting overcrowding is forcing violent felons onto the streets with early releases.

The Drug Policy Alliance also points out other important areas of injustice in the present enforcement system. For instance, people of color -- African-Americans and Latino Americans -- are far more likely to be jailed for drug offenses than others. And college students caught in possession of very small amounts of illegal substances are denied student loans and even food stamps.

The Alliance and other organizations are working to reform and reframe the war on drugs. And they are finding many judges on their side, who are rebelling against this cruel system.

We can expect no federal action during the congressional hiatus in activity ahead of the November elections, but it would be of considerable help if, across the country, campaigning politicians put this high on their promises of legislative action, much sooner than later.

 

A true-blue American icon speaks...but who is listening?

 

When I did smoke, I spent roughly $400 per year.

You do realize that the "Just Say No" campaigns and the subsequent advertising campaigns have actually increased the likelihood of young people using drugs, right? There have been several scientific studies that have proven that these efforts have had the opposite of the intended effect. That is why the latest version of the law authorizing these campaigns specifically prohibits the government from sudying the efficacy of these programs.

We can reduce the access that our young people have to drugs, we will just have to drastically change our strategy by regulating the market.

 

As Sam pointed out, it is a significant percentage of nonmilitary discretionary spending. Add to that the economic impact of a $75 billion per year industry and the resulting taxes we could collect and you have a HUGE impact on our overall economy and tax rolls.

 

I will agree that the money we spend on the drug war is not the MOST convincing argument.

I would assert that the MOST convincing argument for me is the fact that under the current law, over half of our young people use illegal drugs before they leave high school. Compare that to Holland, where mar1juana is not a "forbidden fruit," and their rates of teen drug use are roughly half of what we have here. Studies have shown that the older one is before they begin experimenting with drugs (alcohol is included in the term "drugs"), the less likely one is to experience problem use.

The only way we will reduce drug abuse is by taking an education and healthcare based approach. With a criminal justice approach, our young people will continue to experience drug abuse and addiction at the same rates year after year.

 

This topic is too important for me to sling poo when I have so much empirical evidence along with logic and facts to present.

EDIT: Besides, I really enjoy the lack of responses when I use facts rather than poo. If they are left speechless, I have won.

 

Come on, Faos, no more gems of wisdom?

Stun me with your grasp of drug policy.

 

While I do agree with you on this point, it is simply not going to happen no matter the sanctions we try to impose. Humans have been experimenting with intoxicants since the pyramids were built if not longer.

The world would ALSO be a better place if kids found it between difficult and impossible to even put their hands on intoxicants. That is a goal that CAN be reached through reasonable regulation of the market.

 

Honestly, some of the most convincing opponents of prohibition are conservatives.

Sheriff Bill Masters wrote a couple of books, one of which, "Drug War Addiction," was incredible. I still have a copy if anyone wants to read it. his latest (I forget the name, but they are giving it away for donations at www.stopthedrugwar.com) is a compilation of works by MANY authors from several different points of view. Law enforcement officials, judges, doctors, and more expound on the fallacies of the drug war.

Gary Johnson was Governor of New Mexico when he called for regulating mar1juana. He is a staunch republican and I believe that he wrote one of the essays in Bill Masters' latest book described above.

William F. Buckley is an incredible writer, conservative as it gets, and waxes eloquently about the problems with prohibition as a policy.

I believe that the natural party to oppose prohibition would be the GOP. They usually like to get rid of programs that are simply black holes, sucking up money, especially when those programs are non-military. The problem is that there is BIIIIG money in prohibition and there are VERY powerful interests that do not want to see prohibition end. The alcohol industry, the pharmaceutical industry, the for-profit prison system, the cotton industry, the logging industry, and even the petrochemical companies could be threatened and that is just by mar1juana regulation.

As long as there is big money involved, it will be a hard fight that will have to be fought by the people, because the politicians are either in bed with one of the interested parties or are too afraid of being "soft on drugs."

 

There is no need for ME to defend pot, I can just let science do that for me.