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National Review, 2005-05-10 (Tue) The War on Pot: Wrong drug, wrong war by Rich Lowry, Editor
As the nation's "drug czar," John Walters is supposed to be saving us from
the ravages of hard drugs like heroin and cocaine. At least that was the
original sales pitch for the "war on drugs" in the 1980s. But the war has
evolved into largely a fight against marijuana, which no one has ever
claimed is a hard drug. Walters is nonetheless committed, Ahab-like, to
arresting every marijuana smoker in the country whom law enforcement can lay
its hands on.
It used to be that drug warriors denied that marijuana was much of a focus
for them, because they understandably liked people to think they were
cracking down on genuinely dangerous, highly addictive drugs. No more. We
are waging a war on pot, a substance less addictive and harmful than tobacco
and alcohol, which presumably friends of Walters enjoy all the time with no
fear of being forced to make a court appearance.
According to a new report by the Sentencing Project, in a trend Walters
heartily supports, annual drug arrests increased by 450,000 from 1990 to
2002. Marijuana arrests accounted for 82 percent of the growth, and 79
percent of that was for marijuana possession alone. Marijuana arrests are
now nearly half of all the 1.5 million annual drug arrests.
Marijuana-trafficking arrests actually declined as a proportion of all drug
arrests during this period, while the proportion of possession arrests
increased by two-thirds.
Has the use of other drugs declined, prompting the focus on marijuana? No.
According to the Sentencing Project: "There is no indication from national
drug-survey data that a dramatic decrease in the use of other drugs led to
law-enforcement agencies shifting resources to marijuana. Indeed, there was
a slight increase in the use of all illicit drugs by adult users between
1992 and 2001. Over that same period, emergency-room admissions for heroin
continued to increase." Drug warriors simply think it's a good thing in and
of itself to arrest marijuana smokers.
Their crusade bears little or no connection to law enforcement. Crime
generally has been declining from 1990 to 2002, even as pot arrests have
increased. Are we to believe that crime is at its lowest rates in 30 years,
but the nation is beset by rampaging marijuana smokers who are kept under
minimal control only by ever-increasing arrests? Every major county in the
country, except Fairfax, Va., saw an increase in marijuana arrests during
the past 12 years. That Washington, D.C., suburb has not been notably
overrun by hemp-crazed hordes.
The fight against marijuana isn't even working on its own terms. According
to the Sentencing Project, since 1992, the price of marijuana has fallen
steadily, declining by 16 percent. In 1990, 84.4 percent of high-school
seniors said it was easy to get marijuana. In 2002, 87.2 percent said it was
easy. Daily use by high-school seniors tripled from 1990 to 2002, going from
2.2 percent to 6 percent — the same level as in 1975.
As Allen F. St. Pierre, executive director of the pro-decriminalization
group NORML, puts it, "Increased arrest rates are not associated with
reduced marijuana use, reduced marijuana availability, a reduction in the
number of new users, reduced treatment admissions, reduced emergency-room
mentions, any reduction in marijuana potency, or any increases in the price
of marijuana." Besides that, the war on marijuana is a smash success.
Marijuana is not harmless, and its use should be discouraged, but in the
same way, say, smoking a pack of cigarettes a day should be discouraged. The
criminal-justice system should stay out of it. Twelve states have
decriminalized marijuana to varying degrees, fining instead of arresting
people for possessing small amounts. They recognize that — as the authors of
a new study for the conservative American Enterprise Institute argue — "the
case for imposing criminal sanctions for possession of small amounts of
marijuana is weak."
John Walters, of course, will have a ready answer for the ineffectiveness of
the war on marijuana. It's the answer drug warriors always have — even more
arrests.
Pubdate: May 10, 2005 © 2005 King Features Syndicate |
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