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Same
Drugs, Same Dangers
David
C. Jordan
Reprinted
by permission from The Washington Post, 25 December 1999. Prof. Jordan
teaches at the University of Virginia. He is not a member of the Prohibition
Party, but we think his views are pertinent.
Ethan Nadelmann makes a clever argument for
the legalization of illicit narcotics
through the Trojan horse of `harm reduction.' Nadelmann is director of
the Lindesmith Center ... a project of George Soros's Open Society Institute,
which has spent $20,000,000 trying to change how Americans look at illegal
drugs.
Treating illicit drugs as benign would take
us back to the late 19th century, before
the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 was enacted, when patent medicines
were
laced with dangerous drugs. Pharmaceutical manufacturers sold their narcotics
through inaccurate advertising at the expense of the general welfare and
the poor. Reformers realized then that powerful, addictive narcotics could
act
as a terrible form of regressive tax -- not only transferring wealth to
an elite
group of manufacturers but also robbing the poor underclass of the ability
to generate income and savings and lead productive lives.
Experience demonstrates that with the legalization
of drugs the rate of addiction
increases. Furthermore, government becomes more bureaucratic, because
legalization
really means regulation. Children and other groups such as the military
and key service providers would remain prohibited from using drugs and
thus
would continue to be targets for illegal traffickers and pushers.
Nadelmann argues that `those who consume drugs
without hurting others should not
be of government concern.' According to the 1992 Sourcebook of Criminal
Justice
Statistics, the rate of offenses committed under the influence of drugs
was
almost double the rate of offenses committed in order to buy drugs.
Prisoners were under the influence of drugs
at the time of offense for 28.2% of violent
offenses, 35.4% of property offenses, 36.9% of drug offenses, and 18%
of
public order offenses. These statistics underscore the fact that drug-related
crimes would not diminish with legalization.
Treating narcotic drug use as benign and non-predatory
sends confusing messages
to societies attempting to protect their children from debilitating addictions.
The reformers in the early 20th century courageously exposed these problems
long ago.
David
C. Jordan also is author of the recently published book,
`Drug Politics: Dirty
Money and Democracies.'
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