Drug WarRant

A powerful song and video via Reason TV:

The excellent Peter Moskos points out the absurdity of our criminal justice system by suggesting we bring back the whip.

Suggest adding the whipping post to America’s system of criminal justice and most people recoil in horror. But offer a choice between five years in prison or 10 lashes and almost everybody picks the lash. What does that say about prison?

America has a prison problem. Never in the history of the world has a country locked up so many of its people. We have more prisons than China, and it has a billion more people than we do. Forty years ago America had 338,000 people behind bars. Today 2.3 million are incarcerated. We have more prisoners than soldiers. Something has gone terribly wrong.

The problem — mostly due to longer and mandatory sentences combined with an idiotic war on drugs — is so abysmal that the Supreme Court recently ordered 33,000 prisoners in California to be housed elsewhere or released.

He points out that, except in the cases of the truly dangerous, incarceration makes things worse, not better.

Incarceration not only fails to deter crime but in many ways can increase it. For crime driven by economic demand, such as drug dealing, arresting one seller creates a job opening for others, who might fight over the vacant position.

Incarceration destroys families and jobs, exactly what people need to have in order to stay away from crime. Incarcerated criminals are more likely to reoffend than similar people given alternative sentences. To break the cycle of crime, people need help. And they would need less help if they were never incarcerated in the first place.

It really says something about the depth of the abject failure of our incarceration nation when flogging actually sounds like a welcome and smart alternative.

It’s not been a good week for the drug warriors, with the Global Commission and LEAP making all the news, and lots of media sources following up.

Yesterday, Leonard Pitts, Jr. hit hard on Obama’s role in not doing something about the drug war..

Dear President Obama:
Right after your election, somebody asked if I thought having a black president meant black people’s concerns would now receive attention at the executive level. I told them I expected the opposite. […]

And the limitations of your presidency where African Americans are concerned have never been more obvious than they are this week.

And he mentions LEAP and the Global Commission.

Frankly, Mr. President, you should take this one personally. As you must know, the War on Drugs has been, in effect, a war on black men. Though whites are the nation’s biggest users and dealers of illicit drugs, blacks are the ones most likely to be jailed for drug crimes and to suffer the disruption of families and communities that comes with it.

You have done little to address these and other racial inequities of the criminal injustice system. […]

Here’s the thing, Mr. Obama: Our last three presidents are known — or in George W. Bush’s case, strongly believed — to have used illicit drugs when they were young. None of you were caught.

But what if you had been? They might have been given a second chance by some judge who saw merit or potential in them. They might still have gone on to become productive men.

Mr. President, what do you think would most likely have happened to you?

You know the answer as well as I do. And what you know should compel you to do something about it. No, that might not be politic, but it would definitely be right.

Very strong words.

Stamper delivers critical drug report to Kerlikowske’s office

They are two former Seattle police chiefs on opposing sides of the debate on legalizing drugs. And on Tuesday, Norm Stamper walked to the office of the nation’s “drug czar” Gil Kerlikowske in Washington, D.C., to deliver a critical report on the Obama administration’s failure to pull the plug on war on drugs.

Stamper appeared at the National Press Club at a news conference of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), a national group that favors regulating sales of all illicit drugs, including marijuana, heroin and cocaine. Kerlikowske, who succeeded Stamper as Seattle’s top cop in 2000, opposes legalization.

LEAP members walked four blocks from the Press Club to Kerlikowske’s office at the Office of National Drug Control Policy near the White House. Kerlikowske sent a staffer downstairs to fetch the report.

Couldn’t go downstairs yourself?

Couldn’t meet with a fellow former police chief?

Are you that afraid of us?

Stamper said he was “personally disappointed” that Kerlikowske hasn’t matched his rhetoric two years ago to treat drug abuse less as a matter of law enforcement than as a public health problem. Stamper also said Kerlikowske was wrong to doubt the medical benefits of marijuana.

According to a spokesman for the drug control policy office, the fiscal 2011 federal budget includes more money for drug prevention and treatment ($10.4 billion) than on domestic law enforcement ($10.4 billion).

Here’s the full report from LEAP: Ending the Drug War: a Dream Deferred

President Richard Nixon officially declared a war on drugs on June 17, 1971. Thirty-eight years later, on May 14, 2009, the Obama administration’s drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske, matter-of-factly declared during a newspaper interview that he was ending the analogy of the “war on drugs”. But this wording change and the Obama administration’s many subsequent changes in verbiage have had no corresponding significant change in policy from that of the Bush administration.This report details the ongoing carnage resulting from our failed prohibition policy while the administration has simultaneously tried to score political points by adopting the rhetoric of an evidence-based policy.

It’s a pretty damning report of the Obama administration as a continuing culpable force in drug war destruction, while pointing out that every administration has been at fault.

Most Men Arrested In Atlanta Test Positive For Drugs

ATLANTA — According to a new federal report, most men arrested in Atlanta test positive for illegal drugs at the time of their arrests. […]

National Drug Control Policy Director Gil Kerlikowske: “Drug addiction is too often the root of crime in our communities.”

Feds: Most Indianapolis men arrested were on drugs

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A new federal report has found that more than two-thirds of Indianapolis men arrested last year were under the influence of at least one illegal drug.

White House drug czar Gil Kerlikowske (kur-lih-KOW’-skee) says the findings show that “drug addiction is too often the root of crime”

Here’s the actual report. Some of it is interesting, and could provide useful information, such as how arrestees in some cities are more likely to have used heroin than in others.

But the overall percentage of arrested men testing positive for drugs figure is mostly meaningless and entirely meaningless in the way the drug czar is touting it — by far the most common drug showing up in the report is marijuana. That’s because it’s popular and easy to obtain and because this population is unlikely to care that it’s illegal.

It has absolutely nothing to do with drug use causing crime.

LINK

A top Republican has rejected the notion that Congress should re-examine the nation’s gun laws after al Qaeda urged Muslims to attack America by exploiting loose firearm rules.

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said tightening gun laws to address the threat would be to surrender to terrorists at the expense of Americans’ rights.

“We’ve seen time and again that terrorists will use anything, including our own rights and freedoms, to plot attacks against innocent Americans,” Smith said in an email. “But simply because terrorists abuse our liberties doesn’t mean that we should limit the rights of law-abiding Americans. On the contrary, to limit our rights is to give in to terrorists and the fear they try to spread.”

Such a beautiful statement. But this is the same Lamar Smith who has repeatedly said that we need all of the provisions of the Patriot Act in order to protect ourselves from the terrorists. (He’s also a major drug warrior.)

You know, I think I’ve figured out a way for us to legalize drugs…

OK, it’s a little far-fetched….

All we have to do is to convince the public that not legalizing drugs will lead to the outlawing of abortion and gun possession, and we’ll have legalized drugs tomorrow.

Link

Following a major rise in the number of drug addicts amongst the Israeli population, several members of the Israeli Parliament (Knesset) have called for the formation of a special anti-drug committee to consider legalizing the possession and use of soft narcotics.

They have described the existing anti-drugs mechanisms in Israel as ineffective and obsolete.

Knesset members argue that the traditional policies employed in the fight against drugs have not only failed to reduce drug consumption but also led to an alarming rise in organized crime.

Of course, here in the United States, neither our academics nor our political leaders are willing to even legitimately discuss options like this.

Lots going on this week, including observances of the 40th Anniversary of Nixon’s declaration of drug war.

‘The Wire’ Creator David Simon Has a Counteroffer for Eric Holder

Responding to Attorney General Holder’s expressed wish for another season of The Wire.

The Attorney-General’s kind remarks are noted and appreciated. I’ve spoken to Ed Burns and we are prepared to go to work on season six of The Wire if the Department of Justice is equally ready to reconsider and address its continuing prosecution of our misguided, destructive and dehumanising drug prohibition.

The GOP’s Odd Man Out

Gary Johnson, the popular two-term governor of New Mexico, is running for president. He has a stellar economic record and the most progressive drug policies of any Republican in the race. So why did CNN expel from last night’s debate while showcasing the party’s most rabid stars?

How Cops Turn ‘Stop and Frisk’ Into ‘Stop and Arrest’

Advocates of drug and juvenile-justice reform have launched a campaign against what they contend are the New York Police Department’s illegal “stop and frisks” and the disproportionate number of arrests of black and brown young men for possessing allowable amounts of marijuana.

Educating people about their rights is such an important first step.

Sigh.. Thanks to Steve Clay in comments there.

Drug Policies Must Be Rooted in Science

The drug czar complains that the Global Commission report needs to be rooted in science, and then proceeds to invent his own science.

Our National Drug Control Strategy is science-based. And science shows that illegal drug use is associated with specialty treatment admissions, fatal drugged driving accidents, mental illness, and emergency room admissions.

True cost of drugs: More than half of inmates currently in U.S. federal prisons were convicted of narcotics offences

More than 50 per cent on inmates in U.S. federal prisons were jailed for drug offences, shocking new figures show.

The statistics from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, an agency of the U.S. Department of Justice, reveal that out of a total inmate population of 215,888, 102,391 (that’s 50.8 per cent) were jailed for drug offences.

Newly available: “Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know” by Mark A.R. Kleiman, Jonathan P. Caulkins, and Angel Hawken, in both paperback
and Kindle formats.

With a bold title like that, I just had to check it out.

And to be perfectly honest, the book essentially lives up to its title. Clocking in at a mere 256 pages, and written in a very easy-to-ready style, the book nonetheless contains an extraordinarily comprehensive overview of drugs and drug policy (the authors define “drugs” for the purpose of the book as “abusable psychoactive drugs.”)

Of course, that supposes that you’re willing to read it all the way through. Despite its comprehensive factual approach, clear writing, and useful information, the paternalism and bias that permeates the entire book can be quite frustrating.
Continue reading →

Excellent OpEd in the New York Times by Charles M. Blow

Friday marks the 40th anniversary of one of the biggest, most expensive, most destructive social policy experiments in American history: The war on drugs. […]

So began a war that has waxed and waned, sputtered and sprinted, until it became an unmitigated disaster, an abomination of justice and a self-perpetuating, trillion-dollar economy of wasted human capital, ruined lives and decimated communities. […]

An effort meant to save us from a form of moral decay became its own insidious brand of moral perversion — turning people who should have been patients into prisoners, criminalizing victimless behavior, targeting those whose first offense was entering the world wrapped in the wrong skin. It feeds our achingly contradictory tendency toward prudery and our overwhelming thirst for punishment.

He goes on to note the Global Commission Report released last week and then says:

The White House immediately shot back: no dice. The Obama administration presented a collection of statistics that compared current drug use and demand with the peak of the late 1970s, although a direct correlation between those declines and the drug war are highly debatable. In doing so, it completely sidestepped the human, economic and societal toll of the mass incarceration of millions of Americans, many for simple possession.

No need to put a human face on 40 years of folly when you can swaddle its inefficacy in a patchwork quilt of self-serving statistics.

Powerful writing.