Informed Opinions on Today’s Topics : Committed to Fighting War on Drugs

A recent study released by the Sentencing Project, a nonprofit organization monitoring the nation’s crime trends, stated that 61% of federal inmates and 25% of all California state prisoners were convicted on drug-related charges. In 1983, the percentages were 27% and 7%, respectively. Some say that such dramatic increases can be linked to a series of new laws passed by Congress and state governments in the 1980s that called for stiff mandatory minimum prison terms for people convicted of selling or possessing narcotics. In connection with the study, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons predicted that by 1997, 70% of its inmates will be serving time for crimes involving drugs.

Are we winning the war on drugs?

Clark Carr, executive director of Narconon Professional Detox Center

“My perception is that somewhere between 70% and 90% of criminals are arrested or in jail as a result of their being high on some kind of drug. Many of our clients have had to support their habits through various kinds of immoral activities. They are walking up the ladder of criminality to support an increasingly expensive habit. I’d like to know what (the study) determines as a cutoff point in something being drug-related.

“As far as the statistics tripling proportionately is concerned, I believe that (the study) is accurate. . . . The war is not lost, but we are still in the middle of it. The whole question, though, is oversimplified. The proper question should be: ‘What do we have to spend, in terms of money, manpower and sheer willingness on the part of average citizens to win this war?’ Because we cannot afford to lose it. I cannot even entertain the notion that we’re losing the war. That would lead to the degradation of our society. I just hope that the average decent citizen has the moral fiber to not turn away from this problem.”

Virginia Postrel, editor of Reason Magazine

“The war on drugs has lost its meaning compared to where we were in the early ‘80s. People are put in prisons for nonviolent offenses, while the public worries more about violent crimes. We realize that filling the prisons with drug offenders is no longer such a major priority. We ought to worry more about protecting those people from themselves and protecting the public from violent acts.

“We must distinguish between substance-related crimes and crimes that stem from the prohibition on drugs. The prohibition makes drugs relatively expensive and difficult to obtain. Consequently, there are those who commit petty crimes to feed a drug habit and those who commit violent crimes because they deal in the black market. When you go without a legal market for most drugs, you (operate) without the legalities incorporated by the established industries. . . .

“A small percentage of violent crimes occurring can be considered to be substance-related (versus prohibition-related). Currently, in order to get at the tiny percentage of people who are violent as a result of drug use, you put away thousands who may have gone their whole lives without committing a violent crime.”

Dennis Zeuner, Los Angeles Police Department narcotics detective

“The problem we have is that no one is even waging a real battle against drugs. I have (fewer) people working for me now than I did three years ago. If it were a war, I would have more resources. Smoking cocaine has impacted the drug problem severely. It has put people who wouldn’t have been dependent on drugs 10 years ago into that category. Once people started smoking cocaine, they couldn’t assimilate its being considered a recreational drug with the fact that they needed to have it on a constant basis.

“There are crimes with drugs involved that are not reported as drug-related because of their violent nature. People are involved in homicides that occur within a drug atmosphere. The percentage could go as high as 50% easily if those crimes were included. (In relation to winning the war on drugs), we’ve made some progress over the last five to seven years. But it’s like putting your finger in a (crumbling) dike, only to see the problem resurface somewhere else.”