Early morning deaths are part of the cost of the "War on Drugs"


Make it stop already
I know I sound like a broken record when it comes to the "War On Drugs" and the armed paramilitary raids. that is one reason why I have not been using Radley Balko at the Agitator lately.

But sometimes, it just spills over.

On Nov. 21, an elderly woman was shot dead by Atlanta police officers who crashed through her door after dark to execute a "no-knock" search warrant for illegal drugs. Living in a high-crime neighborhood, apparently frightened out of her wits, she fired at the intruders with a rusty revolver, hitting all three. That's according to the police account, which says the officers then returned fire, striking Johnston in the chest and extremities.

Because there are suggestions of police impropriety in the case, Police Chief Richard Pennington has asked outside law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and the GBI, to review the actions of narcotics officers. Pennington also suspended his entire narcotics squad, with pay, pending the outcome.

The investigation may reveal police incompetence, and it may reveal police malfeasance. Unfortunately, however, it is unlikely to point to the root cause of this tragedy — a foolish, decades-long effort to curb illegal drug use through arrests and incarceration. Raging on mindlessly, the war on drugs has caused untold collateral damage — leaving children fatherless, helping to exacerbate the spread of AIDS and filling prisons with people who, with minimal rehabilitation, might be contributing to society rather than draining its resources.

That only begins to tally the destruction, much of it inflicted on black communities. While black Americans are no more likely to use illegal drugs than whites, they are disproportionately imprisoned for drug offenses. There are three basic reasons for that, according to the Sentencing Project, a Washington-based nonprofit that advocates alternatives to incarceration: the concentration of drug-law enforcement in inner city areas; harsher sentencing policies for crack cocaine, used disproportionately by black Americans, than for powder cocaine; and the drug war's emphasis on law enforcement at the expense of prevention and treatment.

It's Prohibition all over again.

By making certain drugs illegal, the government inadvertently made the illegal drug trade highly profitable while removing any quality control. Fighting the "War on Drugs" has cost billions with no drop in availability. The U.S. has interfered with the sovereign power of other nations and wrecked untold environmental damage, all in the name of unenforceable laws and a paternalistic policy that NO ONE is willing to live under.

It has to stop.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Sun - December 3, 2006 at 04:38 PM  Tag


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