Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 28, 1994 TAG: 9410130024
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LOUIS P. GLENN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Crime, homicides and street gangs are the outward symbols of the illegal drug trade. What is hidden from the public is the corruption that accompanies the sale of illicit drugs. Sometimes, honest cops go wrong because of the amount of money involved; they cannot resist the temptation. The higher echelons of law-enforcement agencies are not immune to bribery; it can be extremely profitable to look the other way. Best-selling author Peter McWilliams, in his book "It Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do," writes:
"On Jan. 27, 1982, Attorney General W.F. Smith and FBI Director W.H. Webster appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee - they were troubled about the enormous profits made by drug dealers. They indicated that much of the profits are used to corrupt public officials at all branches of government. What really was in jeopardy they said was 'law and law enforcement itself.'''
Twelve years later, the situation has not changed. Corruption and crime are still prevalent and will continue to be so unless illegal drugs are made legal. The task of decriminalizing drugs will not be easy. Organized crime flourishes because of illegal drug activity. Its members want illegal drugs to stay illegal. Organized crime is efficient and brutal, with enormous financial resources. It has on its payrolls professionals whose job is to keep the American public informed about how terrible life would be in the United States if hard drugs could be legally obtained.
They will have help from law-abiding citizens who believe that making illicit drugs legal would increase the number of drug addicts and, horror of horrors, even children would become drug addicts.
If drug users were allowed to obtain their drug of choice legally, crime would plummet within a year.
In colonial America, criminals were subjected to public ridicule, public flogging, even public hangings. Crime was dealt with harshly and swiftly because it was seen as a threat to an orderly society. Today, illegal drug dealers are role models for inner-city youths.
McWilliams writes: "The Harrison Narcotic Act of 1914 did not prohibit drugs. The act only regulated and taxed the importation and distribution of 'opium, or coca leaves, their salts, derivatives, or preparations, and for other purposes.' It seemed reasonable to regulate, not prohibit, opium, cocaine and their derivatives."
McWilliams quotes an excerpt from an editorial in the June 1926 issue of the Illinois Medical Journal:
``'The Harrison Narcotic law should never have been placed upon the statute books of the United States. It is to be granted that the well-meaning blunderers who put it there had in mind only the idea of making it impossible for addicts to secure their supply of "dope" and to prevent unprincipled people from making fortunes and fattening upon the infirmities of their fellow men.
``'As is the case with most prohibitive laws, however, this one fell far short of the mark. So far, in fact, that instead of stopping the traffic, those who deal in dope now double their money from the poor unfortunates upon whom they prey.'"
In 1994, conditions are far worse than they were almost 70 years ago. Because of the huge profits derived from the sale of illegal drugs, the large, lucrative American market has attracted foreign criminal organizations, in addition to black and Hispanic gangs in the United States. Authorities know there are at least five Asian cartels trafficking in drugs in America. Japan and ethnic Viet Ching are well-established here. Colombian drug traffickers control cocaine production and wholesaling worldwide.
The Volstead Act and the 18th Amendment created the prohibition era in the early '20s. Its effects are still with us: disrespect for the law, organized crime, and corrupted law enforcement, court system and politics.
Kurt Schmoke, former mayor of Baltimore, wrote in the St. Petersburg Times of Jan. 5, 1986, "Decriminalization will not solve this country's drug-abuse problem, but it could solve our most intractable crime problem.
"It takes great maturity and willpower for a society to step back from a policy that on the surface seems noble and justified, but in reality has only compounded the problem it is attempting to solve. On the subject of drugs, such maturity and will power may now be in order. At the very least, we need a sober national debate on the subject."
Ethical and philosophical questions enter the discussion of legalizing hard drugs. What is the proper role of the government? Is it to protect people even from their own, often destructive desires?
The use of narcotics is a personal matter, and the government should not interfere in the decision whether to use narcotics. Government is fast becoming George Orwell's Big Brother by listening to moralists who believe only they know what is good for an individual and passing laws to govern a citizen's private conduct.
Gambling in most states is illegal, but the state can and does make exceptions to where and how gambling is permissible. The states say gambling is against the law, unless it says it is legal, as with lotteries or riverfront gambling casinos. The states' actions are best clarified by Lewis Carroll, who wrote in "Through the Looking Glass:"
``'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, `it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less.'
```The question is,' said Alice, `whether you can make words mean so many different things.'
```The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, `which is to be master - that's all.'''
Can anyone doubt who is master now that Big Brother is here?
Drug czars have not been able to stem drug use and related criminal activities. It is time to legalize hard drugs and turn the subject of drug use over to the surgeon general. It then would become a matter of preventive health education. Decriminalization would make it possible to redirect billions of dollars from interdiction, enforcement and building prisons to prevention, treatment and education.
Louis P. Glenn of Lexington is a retired federal auditor.
by CNB