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How Do We Solve the Drug Problem?
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11522 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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10 / 1986 |
4,111 Words |
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Edward Koch, Ernest van den Haag, Roy Childs, Rachel Ehrenfeld
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Let the Punishment Fit the Crime
by Edward Koch
I only know of one way to deal with the drug problem. It is a four-part program. I would hope that people would support all four parts, but if you can only support some, support some.
The first part is that the armed forces have to be given the mission of interdicting drugs before they come into the country. Once they come into the country there is very little that local authorities can do, because of the profit incentive. There is so much money to be made that people will risk jail. Even though over the last 2½ years [New York City] Police Commissioner Ben Ward has arrested over 50,000 drug pushers, it hasn't cut down drug traffic at all [but only] driven it into the buildings as opposed to being on the streets.
So you have to interdict it before it comes into this country, and regrettably the armed forces do not want that mission. They should be mandated to take that mission by the Congress, but I haven't received much support there.
We did get 500 Coast Guardsmen authorized by way of an increase to put them on naval ships to do a little interdicting, but it's not adequate. It's just a halfway step, but it's better than it was before.
The second thing is that the federal government should take exclusive jurisdiction of all drug-pushing arrests and prosecutions. At this moment, they only take the big boys, and they leave the minor characters to the states. But there is not such thing as "minor." Every minor character is responsible for somebody's death out there. Whether it's physical death or spiritual death is of no consequence.
People are dying every single day as a result of the minor characters involved in drug pushing as well as the big boys that the federal government likes to concentrate on. So I believe that the federal government should take exclusive jurisdiction and try every drug-pushing case.
The third [point] is that I believe every one of those drug pushers convicted should go to a federal jail, and the federal government should build the jails necessary to do that.
And then the fourth is, I believe in the death penalty as an option for judge and jury for a wholesaler engaged in drug trafficking. Whether wholesale is a kilo or more, or less, I leave to the experts. But I believe that it's constitutional - and I'm pleased to say that U.S. Attorney Rudy Giuliani has said that he believes it's constitutional - to impose the death penalty under those circumstances.
So that's that aspect of it. Now the moral quotient. I believe our society has not been sufficiently concerned, that we talk a good game out there in the public, but when push comes to shove, you've got to do something about it. I don't think they're willing to do the pushing or the shoving.
When it comes to convicting and sentencing severely, there apparently has been a reluctance in the court system. Whether
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