End the drug-prohibition disaster

A Feb. 4 front-page story in the Southeast Missourian detailed concerns about Missouri's out-of-control criminal justice system. The article pointed out we have a completely failed drug prohibition policy in this country and that it is causing us to waste billions of dollars. Two prominent Missouri officeholders, who happen to be Republicans, are quoted in this article.

Chief Justice William Price, during his State of the Judiciary speech to the Missouri Legislature, said: "The problem is that we are following a broken strategy of cramming inmates into prisons and not providing the type of drug treatment and job training that is necessary to break their cycle of crime. Any normal business would have abandoned this failed policy years ago, and it is costing us our shirts." Chief Justice Price was referring to our practice of putting nonviolent drug offenders and DWI offenders into prison instead of finding alternative methods of punishment and/or rehabilitation.

The article goes on to quote House Crime Prevention Committee chairman Scott Lipke, the Republican state representative from Jackson, who says that we need more consistency and focus on treatment programs for those convicted of nonviolent crimes. Lipke said: "We have to move toward rehabilitating people."

Scott Lipke is an effective Republican legislator, and Chief Justice Price was appointed by Republican governor John Ashcroft to the Missouri Supreme Court. They are both Republicans, and they are both capable public officeholders. It takes considerable courage to stand up against fear and speak the truth. The truth is that our prohibition against drugs has been as big a failure as our prohibition against alcohol was in the 1920s. We have no fewer drugs because of prohibition, just like we had no less alcohol during that period of prohibition. We have as many drugs as we would have if drugs were legalized. The only difference is that we now have more criminals and a budget-busting law enforcement/prosecution/court/prisons problem.

You have to look no farther than the $62 million palace of federal justice looming over Independence Street to recognize the billions we have poured into the drug courts of the United States with no beneficial effect whatsoever.

Sadly, the very next page of the same issue of the Southeast Missourian showed how the people with a vested interest in prohibition are fighting back. An article on the next page detailed a legislative proposal to outlaw a substance called "K2," which can be smoked and is said to make people as goofy as marijuana does. Naturally, the police and prosecution officials who have gained billions in budget authority are all for increasing prohibition. They now want to criminalize people who smoke this fake marijuana. Police and school officials say they are concerned about its unknown health risks. A state representative from West Plains has introduced a bill to criminalize its possession.

Make no mistake about where the interests lie here. There are only two reasons to support making criminals out of people who possess a substance that has "unknown health risks." One interest is to protect the bloated budgets of police, prosecutors, courts and prisons. The other is to seek cheap political thrills by being "tough on crime." Chief Justice Price told the legislature: "We may have been tough on crime, but we have not been smart on crime."

It is time to quit incarcerating people who are involved in the drug trade. Frankly, it is time to legalize all drugs and regulate them the way we regulate alcohol. Let me repeat: We will have no more drugs on the street. But we will save billions in enforcement costs and raise billions in taxes. Drugs are absolutely no different from alcohol -- except, I suppose, more middle-aged white guys drink whiskey than smoke dope. Maybe.

I feel sorry for people who ruin their lives by using drugs. I also feel sorry for drunks. However, I am thoroughly tired of paying to feed and incarcerate drunks and drug addicts. I don't see why every Republican in Missouri is not lining up behind Chief Justice Price and Representative Lipke. This should be a hot Republican issue. Why are we feeding and housing drug addicts and drunks? Why are we creating a nanny state that says we have to protect people from their own foolishness? Why aren't Republicans lining up against the nanny state and this waste of money?

More particularly, where is Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder on this issue? He desperately wants to separate himself from the policies of Gov. Jay Nixon. Here is his chance. Let's see Mr. Kinder get out in front on this issue of getting government out of the nanny business and saving billions of dollars of state money.

The only sensible thing in the article about K2 is that we don't want people driving after they have been using it. The state representative who has introduced the proposed expansion of prohibition says: "We've got to do something, because somebody is going to be using this, driving a vehicle and killing somebody." He's right. Let's make it against the law to drive a motor vehicle while you use this stuff. Or while you use any other controlled substance. Obviously some people will still do it. Just like people still drive drunk. However, that leaves us with one difficult enforcement/incarceration problem instead of our current out-of-control system.

It's time for Republican leadership on this issue. It is time to end prohibition. Again!

John L. Cook of Cape Girardeau is a lawyer.