Drug and alcohol abuse is costing America nearly $150 billion a year in theft, job absenteeism, accidents, and deaths. In response, the federal government has launched a multibillion-dollar war against illegal drugs. There are signs that the counteroffensive is working: Public awareness of the seriousness of the illegal drug problem is on the rise, and there has been a significant recent drop in the number of students using drugs.
At the same time, a growing number of people are suggesting a radical new approach: legalization of the sale of such substances as heroin, cocaine, and marijuana as a way to reduce crime and eliminate profits in the international drug trade.
To discuss the pros and cons of drug legalization as well as the root causes of the drug epidemic in America, The World & I invited four distinguished experts to participate in a special forum: Edwin Meese, former U.S. attorney general; Reggie Walton, deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy; David Boaz, senior fellow at the Cato Institute; and Eric E. Sterling, president of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation. Lee Edwards, senior editor of The World & I, served as forum moderator.
THE WORLD & I: William J. Bennett has called drug legalization "morally scandalous" and a "recipe for public policy disaster." Do you agree or disagree?
Reggie Walton: I agree. To a large extent, the problems associated with drugs relate to a deterioration of our values and morals as a people. I am sure that back in the 1930s or 1940s if you had dropped a ton of cocaine in Manhattan, people would have called the sanitation department to come clean it up. Today, if you did the same thing, people would jump into it headfirst to see who could get the highest.
Legalizing drugs would only result in further deterioration of the values of America.
David Boaz: Drug prohibition is a public policy disaster. We have more than 8,000 people a year dying because of our current drug laws. The Army has recently started sending its young battlefield surgeons to train at Los Angeles ghetto hospitals because that is where they will eventually see on the battlefield.
The corruption of our law enforcement officials, the spread of AIDS in the inner city, street crime in the inner-city… Legalization might be a dangerous social experiment, but prohibition is a proven disaster.
Eric E. Sterling: I always like to start by asking, "What do we hope to accomplish? What is our goal?" The goal that we really ought to try to achieve, it seems to me, is minimization of the harm to our society from the use of drugs. To argue that legalization is morally scandalous begs the question if the current situation results in so much disease, so much death, the spread of AIDS, children being abandoned by their parents.
I think that the goal of minimizing harm to our society can best be achieved by trying to police and regulate the market in drugs. The current approach really is completely deregulated. The government in effect has said to the criminals, "You run the drug business, and we will chase after you." That is
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