Former drug warriors speak out


An organization of police and former police working to end the Drug War
Lisa Hoffman of the Scripps Howard News Service wrote a great article.

When he was new in "blue," Robert Owens was the scourge of East Los Angeles junkies, racking up record-breaking numbers of heroin arrests.

But even then, the young Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy wondered if all the collars and the time and resources it took to make them were making any difference.

Those doubts only grew during the rest of his 38 years in law enforcement, including his 22 years as police chief in gritty Oxnard, Calif.

Today, at 74, Owens is an outspoken proponent of ending America's drug war, which has been waged for nearly four decades at an estimated cost of $500 billion. Despite the best efforts and intentions of anti-drug policies, it simply hasn't worked, he says.

"This country is long overdue in recognizing that not only have we lost the war on drugs, but we have squandered billions of dollars and untold numbers of lives," said Owen, who now coordinates law enforcement internships at the University of Texas in San Antonio.

Owen is not alone. He is one of 2,000 members of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, an organization of current and former police officers, judges, prosecutors, prison guards and others across the country and in Canada and England.

All have toiled in the trenches of the drug war and now consider traditional approaches futile. Though there is not unanimity, most in the group believe that the government should regulate the distribution and use of illicit substances and offer treatment instead of prison time to those caught in their grip.

But that isn't what makes this article a classic. No, that comes later with the White House response.

Perhaps not, but they are misguided and far out on the fringe of the drug issue, said a spokesman for the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy.

"It's simply an irresponsible message to put out there," said Rafael Lemaitire, deputy press secretary for the anti-drug office.

By any measure, Lemaitire said, the drug war - which employs police work, public education and treatment to attack the problem - has been effective in driving down drug use in America. In 1979, at the peak of the drug epidemic, 14 percent of the U.S. population said they had used drugs in the past 30 days. Now, that number is 6 percent.

Let's see, admit that you are doing drugs and face mandatory sentencing, seizure of all your property, possibly violent arrest by a heavily armed SWAT team and public humilation, or lying about your drug use.

Which would you rather?

Anyway, it is enough to get a link for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, and I will probably add them to the Favorite Links as well.

Hat tip to Drug War Rant.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Thu - October 20, 2005 at 05:01 AM  Tag


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