Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed and What We Can Do About It: A
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CONTENTS Preface to the Second Edition ix PART I: Introduction 1 PART II: Our Drug Laws Have Failed 17 1 Past and Present 19 A Historical Perspective 20 Emergence of the Prison-Industrial Complex 28 2 Increased Harm to Communities 49 Communities Awash in Illicit Drugs 49 Violence and Corruption 71 Domestic 71 Foreign 83 3 Erosion of Protections of the Bill of Rights: Where’s Paul Revere? 103 4 Increased Harm to Drug Users 131 Demonization 131 Deterioration of Health 134 5 Increased Harm for the Future 147 Conspiracy Theories 147 Government Policy: Don’t Discuss It! 153 PART III: Options 159 6 Increased Zero Tolerance 163 7 Education 177 viii • CONTENTS 8 Drug Treatment 193 Rehabilitation 195 Medicalization 201 Needle-Exchange Programs 201 Drug Substitution Programs 206 Drug Maintenance Programs 209 9 Deprofitization of Drugs 221 Legalization 221 Decriminalization 228 Regulated Distribution 233 10 Federalism, Not Federalization 243 PART IV: What We Can Do About It 247 Appendix A: Resolution 263 Appendix B: Government Commission Reports and Other Public Inquiries 265 Index 279 WHY OUR DRUG LAWS HAVE FAILED and WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT JUDGE JAMES P. GRAY WHY OUR DRUG LAWS HAVE FAILED and WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT A JUDICIAL INDICTMENT OF THE WAR ON DRUGS SECOND EDITION TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS PHILADELPHIA TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122 www.temple.edu/tempress Copyright © 2012 by Temple University All rights reserved First edition published 2001 Second edition published 2012 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gray, James P., 1945– Why our drug laws have failed and what we can do about it : a judicial indictment of the war on drugs / James P. Gray. — 2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4399-0798-6 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4399-0799-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4399-0800-6 (e-book) 1. Drug abuse—Government policy—United States. 2. Drug control—United States. I. Title. HV5825.G6954 2012 362.29′160973—dc22 2011019634 The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992 Printed in the United States of America 2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1 This book is dedicated to Rufus King, Esq. Prof. Alfred Lindesmith Dr. Milton Friedman Edward M. Brecher Justice Gerald LeDain Dr. Herbert Berger Mayor Kurt Schmoke William F. Buckley, Jr. Secretary of State George Shultz Richard Dennis Dr. Willis P. Butler Judge Robert W. Sweet Chief Joseph D. McNamara Prof. Ethan Nadelmann Dr. Clarke and Katherine Smith Prof. Arnold S. Trebach Kevin Zeese, Esq. and all of the other pioneers who had the audacity and courage years ago to challenge our country’s failed drug policy. Friends tell friends the truth CONTENTS Preface to the Second Edition ix PART I: Introduction 1 PART II: Our Drug Laws Have Failed 17 1 Past and Present 19 A Historical Perspective 20 Emergence of the Prison-Industrial Complex 28 2 Increased Harm to Communities 49 Communities Awash in Illicit Drugs 49 Violence and Corruption 71 Domestic 71 Foreign 83 3 Erosion of Protections of the Bill of Rights: Where’s Paul Revere? 103 4 Increased Harm to Drug Users 131 Demonization 131 Deterioration of Health 134 5 Increased Harm for the Future 147 Conspiracy Theories 147 Government Policy: Don’t Discuss It! 153 PART III: Options 159 6 Increased Zero Tolerance 163 7 Education 177 viii • CONTENTS 8 Drug Treatment 193 Rehabilitation 195 Medicalization 201 Needle-Exchange Programs 201 Drug Substitution Programs 206 Drug Maintenance Programs 209 9 Deprofitization of Drugs 221 Legalization 221 Decriminalization 228 Regulated Distribution 233 10 Federalism, Not Federalization 243 PART IV: What We Can Do About It 247 Appendix A: Resolution 263 Appendix B: Government Commission Reports and Other Public Inquiries 265 Index 279 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION This approach to the drug problem is really a matter of our policy on drugs. The drug problem, the social problems, will always be with us, but how we deal with them must be rethought.1 Judge David Nichols (retired), Superior Court, Bellingham, Washington How does one win a drug war when millions of Americans who use recreational drugs are financing the cartels[’] bribing, murdering, and beheading to win the war and keep self-indulgent Americans supplied with drugs?2 Pat Buchanan, advisor to former Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan I have one question that nobody ever asks, and that is this question: What would happen if there were no profit in drugs? If they couldn’t make any money out of selling drugs, what would happen?3 Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) My personal view, I think for the most part we should legalize marijuana and be done with it. Because I think it’s created way more havoc and trouble than it’s worth.4 Judge Robert L. Deschamps III, Missoula County District Court, Missoula, Montana Future generations will look back at us as idiots for this war on drugs, the same way we mocked the Roaring Twenties prohibitionists.5 Deputy Sheriff Nate Bradley (retired), Sutter County, California 1. Paraphrased from a LEAP video at http://www.Youtube.com/watch?v=u0-LD4mWar0. 2. Quoted in Eve Conant, “Pot and the GOP,” Newsweek, November 1, 2010:30–35. 3. Dan Burton, “They Do It Because They Make Money,” Sojourners Magazine, May–June 2003:23. 4. Quoted in Kim Murphy, “Jurors Are Giving Pot Suspects a Pass,” Los Angeles Times, December 25, 2010, Orange County ed.: A1, A21. 5. Quoted in Andy McIntosh, “McIntosh: ‘Reefer Madness’ Mentality Persists,” North County Times (San Diego and Riverside Counties, California), May 21, 2011, http://www .nctimes.com/news/opinion/columnists/mcintosh/article_b53b8314-892a-5e61-833a- 0adae1e7c11f.html. x • PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION any things have happened since this book was first published in 2001. Unfortunately, there is no particular need to update Mmany of the stories or much of the data, because since that time we have compounded our problems by continuing to follow the same failed and hopeless policy of Drug Prohibition that we have been actively employing for the past four decades or more. So although much has hap- pened, not much has really changed. Thus the arguments previously made are just as forceful now as they were then.6 To highlight that point, at the beginning of my presentations to vari- ous groups, I almost always ask whether we are in better shape today than we were five years ago regarding the critical issue of drug abuse and all of the crime and misery that go with it. And almost never do any people in the audience raise their hands and say that we are. Well, if it’s true that we’re no better off—and it is—then we also must realize that we have no legitimate expectation of being in better shape next year than we are today—unless we change our approach. Without question, things have indeed gotten worse during these past ten years. So this book has now been updated to show that the number of people arrested and incarcerated for drug offenses has continued to climb almost unabated; that the problems caused specifically by drug money have continued to reach terrifying levels, including the unprecedented but entirely foreseeable violence and corruption that has fallen on Mexico; and that all the while these sometimes dangerous and addicting drugs have become even more available for anyone who wants them, especially our children. But over these past ten years there have also been some remarkable signs of progress, and those are addressed. For example, twenty-three states have now passed some form of marijuana decriminalization 6. Throughout this book, and many others about this subject, many statistics are included about costs, drug usage, arrest and incarceration rates, and more. Obviously, some of these statistics are more reliable than others. For example, most of the federal government’s statistics concerning personal drug use are taken from voluntary disclosure surveys. As you can imagine, when someone taking information for the government is standing on your front porch with a clipboard, you are much more likely to be honest about your drug usage when you perceive that prosecution is more easygoing than when it is being pursued more rigorously. This means that usage rates automatically will be artificially lower if prosecution rates are increased and more truthfully higher if prosecution rates are reduced. Nevertheless, I include many statistics, since they help to provide a frame of reference. If you want to obtain the most recent statistics for yourself, visit http://www .ondcp.gov, http://www.nida.nih.gov, http://www.CommonSenseDrugPolicy.org, http:// www.DrugWarFacts.org, http://www.DrugLibrary.org, http://www.DrugPolicyAlliance .org, or http://www.MarijuanaPolicyProject.org, and if you would like to receive updated statistics every week on domestic and international drug policy news, you can sign up at http://www.capwiz.com/drcnet/mlm/verify/. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION • xi laws;7 fourteen states and the District of Columbia have now imple- mented a system for the use of medical marijuana; and as of the time of this writing, nine additional states have bills pending that would implement similar systems. And as a sign of things to come, the Barack Obama Administration, through Attorney General Eric Holder, has gone on record as saying the federal government will not prosecute people for use, possession, or sale of medical marijuana, as long as they act in compliance with the laws of their individual states.