Abandoning the 'Drug-Free America' Myth

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Abandoning the 'Drug-Free America' Myth

 

By Glenn Backes, Drug Policy Alliance

November 19, 2003

 

Rush Limbaugh is addicted to OxyContin. Arnold Schwarzenegger smoked pot and

consumed anabolic steroids. Most Americans enjoy a daily cup of coffee. The fact

is, this country is filled with drugs – prescription, over-the-counter, illegal

and otherwise. The drug warriors have been promising for decades to make America

drug-free. Billions of dollars have been spent and hundreds of thousands of

people are locked up. Yet drugs are as prevalent and easy-to-get as ever.

 

 

 

It's time for a new approach. First off, let's abandon the " drug-free " myth.

Clinging to this impossible goal clouds our common sense and perverts our policy

priorities. Instead, we should focus on implementing new drug policies that are

fiscally responsible and have the goal of keeping Americans safe and healthy.

 

 

 

Drug treatment, for example, works better than prison in helping to stop the

cycle of addiction. Just ask Rush. Or Noelle Bush. Or Cindy McCain (John's

wife). Unfortunately, half of Americans who need treatment cannot get it.

Instead they are taken away from their families and locked in a jail cell for

crimes committed primarily against themselves. Those who struggle every day with

addiction need help, not a drug charge on their record that could ruin their

future chances for jobs, school loans, or public housing.

 

 

 

Federal and state governments flush about $40 billion a year trying to win the

war on drugs. The lion's share goes toward busting, trying, and incarcerating

nonviolent drug users and petty dealers. The federal prison bill for housing

over 78,000 drug offenders exceeds $1.8 billion every year. Most of the men and

women in federal prisons for drug offenses are first-time, nonviolent offenders.

 

 

 

Although the feds have the option of running up deficits, states do not.

Burdened with massive prison bureaucracies, states are now forced to slash funds

for everything else, including schools, healthcare, job creation, and even law

enforcement. Yes, that's right. There are fewer cops on the street because

states are employing guards, cooks, builders, accountants, and doctors (among

others) to provide 24-hour services to petty drug offenders.

 

 

 

In order to save money on prisons, we should roll back the draconian sentencing

regimes for nonviolent drug crimes. For instance, in California, possession of

less than one ounce of heroin or selling a $10 bag of marijuana can send any

adult on an all-expenses-paid trip to the gray bar hotel for three years or

more. Three years of prison time costs California taxpayers around $84,000 per

prisoner, not including the expenses related to enforcement and legal

proceedings.

 

 

 

By abandoning the impossible goal of becoming a " drug-free " society, we can

begin to focus our drug education programs on keeping people, especially young

people, safe. Instead of programs being evaluated solely on whether they

increase or decrease non-problematic, occasional drug use, we can look at how

our policies affect rates of death, disease, crime, suffering and their cost to

the hard-working taxpayer.

 

 

 

We all live with drugs all around us, whether it's cigarettes or Prozac or pot.

We know we can't get rid of them, so let's try instead to reduce the risks

associated with them. We can support designated driver campaigns for alcohol

drinkers, for example, or syringe exchange programs to help heroin users prevent

the spread of HIV/AIDS to each other and their families. We can support drug

treatment as an inexpensive and effective way of deterring drug abuse, rather

than continuing to try and arrest and incarcerate our way out of the problem.

 

 

 

Lawmakers should reduce or even eliminate the jail time for nonviolent drug

crimes, and earmark the savings from prisons for community policing, drug

treatment, and healthcare. Or give it back to us in the form of tax rebates. But

for the sake of reason, health, and ultimately justice, we should stop pursuing

the hopeless ideal of a " drug-free America " .

 

 

 

Glenn Backes, MSW, MPH, is Director of the California Capital Office of Drug

Policy Alliance, a national membership organization dedicated to developing

alternatives to the war on drugs.

 

 

 

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