The
Orange County Register Hits Another Home-Run Editorial of the War on
Drugs
Editorial
The unwinnable
war
July 8,
1998
It's tragic
when an officer sworn to uphold the law turns to breaking it. That might
have happened in the case of Richard W. Parker, an agent of the state
Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement. He allegedly tried to distribute 26
pounds of cocaine worth $285,000. The San Juan Capistrano resident was
arrested in Pasadena as he collected $47,000 of what was believed to
be a payment. Another $100,000 was found in the trunk of his car.
It must
be emphasized that Mr. Parker is innocent until proven guilty. As the
Register reported, "After his arrest on Thursday, Parker denied
any knowledge of drugs... ." Also, most police officers are not
involved in such illegal activities.
But incidents
such as this one raise a broader issue: the need to look at alternatives
to the costly "war" on drugs.
Because
what is essentially a medical problem abuse of drugs has
been treated as a criminal problem, the "war" on drugs has
caused collateral damage throughout American society. One example is
the occasional corruption of police officers at all levels of government.
"Of
course it's a small number officers involved," Joseph McNamara
told us; he's a former chief of police in San Jose and now is a research
fellow at the Hoover Institution, where he's writing a book on police
and drug corruption. "But the sheer amount of money indicates there
will always be some cops who can't turn down the temptation. It's more
money than they'll ever accumulate working 30 years for their pension.
The profit markup can be 17,000 percent."
The problem
is a political one, he said. "The politicians have declared this
war. The cops have been pushed into a war they can't win. What happens
to some officers is they see that it's hopeless, so they rationalize
their own behavior, saying, 'Why should "the enemy" get to
keep all the money.' "
Another
problem, Chief McNamara said, is the waste of public resources. "Because
of the drug hysteria, for most police agencies in the United States
it's their No. 1 priority. Money that could protect women and children
from violence went to arrest more than 640,000 marijuana smokers last
year." He estimates that for law enforcement at the federal, state
and local levels the cost of the "war" is approximately $40
billion a year.
Another
fallout from the "war" on drugs is more widespread than the
corruption of some officers. "Once you're in the mentality that
it's a holy war, then you'll get wholesale violations of rights,"
he said. "It has corrupted the police ranks not only in the case
you're talking about, but it affects the oath police take to protect
constitutional rights. The drug laws are basically unenforceable because
they involve voluntary transactions. So police get involved in using
informants and conducting searches that aren't justified. The war mentality
creates this sense of crisis, because there are no halfway measures
in a war. You have to win. But you can't win this war."
Chief McNamara
favors declaring victory in the "war" on drugs and shifting
the money from enforcing unenforceable drug laws to the medical treatment
of drug users. That's a sensible prescription for restoring a sense
of balance to law enforcement in America and an essential step toward
reducing the temptation to corruption.
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