 March
21, 2009 -- Bellingham Herald (WA)
OpEd: Retired Judge Says It Is Time To End War On Drugs
By David A. Nichols, Whatcom County superior court judge
for 20 years, retiring in 2004
A recent letter to the editor argued against reforming marijuana
laws, missing the mark entirely in my opinion. After serving
as a Whatcom County superior court judge for 20 years, I can
assure you that the prohibition of marijuana has been a colossal
failure. Arresting, prosecuting, and jailing people are an expensive
and ineffective way to address a public health issue.
We should take a lesson from recent anti-tobacco public education
campaigns targeted at youth. Youth initiation rates of cigarette
smoking have plummeted in recent years, both in Washington and
nationwide. We did not have to arrest a single cigarette smoker
to accomplish these successes.
It is time we take a hard look at the irrefutable fact that
marijuana prohibition is causing more harm than good. I think
we can do better. That is why I support Senate Bill 5615, which
has been introduced in the Washington state Legislature. This
bill would make adult possession of small amounts of marijuana
a civil infraction instead of a misdemeanor crime.
The state estimates that the bill would save Washington taxpayers
over $16 million each year, and the experience of the 12 other
states who have already taken this step demonstrates no negative
impact to their communities.
It is my fervent belief that this state and nation must come
to recognize that continuing to treat drug users as criminals
perpetuates an evil that rewards the drug sellers and corrupts
our society. Until we honestly and appropriately deal with the
entire drug issue as a health problem analogous to tobacco or
liquor, and not as a "war" we cannot win, we will continue
to reap the whirlwind of huge world-wide illegal drug profits
which are costing us billions, threatening the stability of nations,
causing soaring crime rates and diverting money which is sorely
needed elsewhere.
The pending legislation in Olympia is a first step toward
a rational approach to the drug problem and deserves to be supported
by all of us.
With the exception of a few brave souls willing to stake their
careers on speaking out, the nation and world are mystifyingly
deaf and mute to the reality that the "war on drugs"
not only is not working; it is having the opposite effect of
escalating the problem exponentially.
The present generation has forgotten that emotions also ran
rampant in the years leading up to Prohibition. Convinced that
alcohol was evil and that society would be ruined if it were
not outlawed, Congress was persuaded to pass legislation which
had the inevitable result of encouraging the black market to
flourish, allowing organized crime to gain a foothold which it
has never relinquished, to seize control and enjoy huge profits,
requiring the creation of colossal state and federal police forces
to combat the crime and wasting millions of dollars, only to
be repealed when enough people realized that the efforts were
availing nothing. We now sensibly have liquor under state control,
and treat addiction as a health problem.
We have also been smart enough to treat tobacco use the same
way. Cigarettes are regulated but not proscribed. We have left
it to the culture to censure cigarette smoking, which has been
far more effective than if we criminalized their use.
Why cannot we understand that, even though alcohol and nicotine
abuse cause far more damage and loss of productivity to our society
than do drugs, by not criminalizing their use but treating their
misuse as a health problem instead of a crime has allowed us
to avoid all the problems that now beset us as we wage the "war
on drugs?"
If we ever want to stop the craziness and futility of our
present anti-drug approach, we must de-criminalize possession
and use of all drugs. Education, addiction treatment and state
regulation need to replace arrests, trials, jail sentences, growth
of cartels and drug gangs, corrupt government institutions, and
the mindless head-bashing against brick walls that characterize
what we are doing now.
It will never work. It didn't work in the past. If we would
only study the past, maybe we would not be condemned to repeat
it.
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