A Joint Proposition
David Stevens
Southwest News Service
Amarillo Globe-News
July 13, 2000
The issue of drug legalization has been brought to the forefront in New Mexico.
The arguments for decriminalizing drugs go something like this:
The millions of dollars the United States spends on fighting them could be better spent educating children and young adults about the dangers of substance abuse.
Drug addicts do not belong in jail; they should be hospitalized and treated for their illness.
Alcohol and tobacco pose far greater threats to society.
The government’s approach to eliminating drug abuse isn’t working and it’s time to try something else.
Drug laws are civil rights violations. In the words of one organization that’s working to decriminalize drugs: “We do not advocate drug use, but in America adults have the freedom to make their own choices, even stupid ones, as long as they do not harm others.” But even if all of the above were true, Clovis, N.M., district attorney Randall Harris is not convinced that decriminalizing drugs would help solve the problems they create. That’s because, he says, drug users are unable to limit harm to themselves.
“It doesn’t just affect you,” he said. “It affects all of us.”
New Mexico Republican governor Gary Johnson gave the issue credibility last year when he began publicly advocating the legalization of marijuana. He also supports decriminalization of other drugs.
The Associated Press reported Johnson has repeatedly called the nation’s war on drugs a failure. He says drug legalization would reduce crime and drug-related health problems.
But his ideas have not been embraced – not by government officials or the population at large. The secretary of New Mexico’s department of public safety resigned his post in protest of Johnson’s stance.
A newspaper poll showed Johnson’s approval rating plummeted from 54 to 35 percent once his views on decriminalizing drugs became known.
State G0P officials have acknowledged they’re concerned the governor’s push could complicate the party’s efforts to gain seats in the state Legislature this fall.
And some parents have complained they don’t want their children to hear Johnson’s message, especially at school.
Still, thousands are listening. And the idea is beginning to attract attention, if not overwhelming support.
Americans Against the Drug War, a Dallas-based not-for-profit corporation, claims it represents more than 15,000 grass-roots activists throughout the United States.
Those activists contend:
“The large profits associated with prohibited substances are in large part responsible for the growth of organized crime and gang activities in the United States.
“The United States now imprisons more people per capita than any other nation ( as a result of its drug laws ).
“Minors have fairly easy access to illicit drugs.
“The drug war is a failure on all fronts unless you happen to make your livelihood fighting it.” Harris is among those fighters.
“I like Gary Johnson a bunch. I certainly share some of his concerns. I am not waving a banner that says the war on drugs is working and what we’re doing is 100-percent guaranteed because it’s not. There are a lot of areas that he has concerns about that I do too,” Harris said.
But, “No. He hasn’t been able to convince me that legalizing drugs is the answer.”
That’s because Harris said he’s seen the negative impact of substance abuse up close.
“I’ve gone on welfare checks, on child-abuse cases where the parents were passed out ( from drug use ),” he said. “Last year we went to a house where a little baby – four or five months old – was just skin and bones. There were kids playing in the house with marijuana bongs and
these sorts of things. I said to myself, ‘That’s what people need to see.’ It’s not just a matter of people smoking marijuana when they want to – it affects families, relationships, jobs; it affects people’s ability to do a lot of things.”
Oldham County Sheriff David Medlin agrees.
“I’ve watched it destroy people’s lives,” he said.
“What I’ve seen with drugs, somebody may just do it one time and they’re addicted and there’s no easy way out. I’m not saying that happens every time, but I do know people personally that that has happened to them.”
Rolf Ernst is a spokesman for Americans Against the Drug War, which supports decriminalization.
“Nobody debates, and we don’t either, that there are harmful effects involved for some people in the usage of some drugs,” he said. “However, we also feel that group is somewhat exaggerated. With marijuana we believe certainly very few people are ( negatively ) impacted by extreme measures.
“You have to outweigh the negative affects vs. possible gains you could achieve. I think what we’re seeing over time in the drug war is the laws have led to numerous negative effects such as – erosion of civil rights.”
Ernst said AADW advocates changing laws so that possession and use of drugs would be legal. The organization wants all adult drug use decriminalized based on the idea that “no individual right should be revoked until it is shown that 1 ) the action, in and of itself, causes harm to others; and 2 ) prohibiting the act will positively affect the whole of society,” according to its Internet Web site.
Rick Day, a member of Dallas-based National Organization for the Repeal of Marijuana Laws, doesn’t want to go quite that far.
“I’m not for the legalization of lab-based drugs at this point because, quite frankly, ( some lab-based drugs ) are dangerous things,” he said.
But Day does support the legalization of “earth-based drugs,” which he describes as anything produced naturally. Lab-based drugs are those radically changed from their original state by chemicals, such as methamphetamines.
While Day said he recently stepped down from the board of directors of AADW because it did not distinguish between earth-based drugs and lab-based drugs, he still agrees with many AADW philosophies.
“I don’t think anybody should go to jail for making a personal choice – and that’s everything from prostitution to homosexuality to gambling to wife swapping to taking certain drugs. Nobody should be put in jail for that – only when their actions extend (to harm ) somebody else,” he said.
Sue Rusche, executive director of Atlanta-based National Families in Action, said she’s heard that argument before and isn’t swayed.
“What I say to those people is ‘Fine. So long as you’re willing to sign this paper to never ask taxpayers to cover the cost of any drug-related illness,”‘ she said.
Like the prosecutor Harris, she doesn’t think drug users can limit harm to themselves.
NFIA’s published mission is to “help families and communities prevent drug use among children by promoting policies based on science.”
One of the organization’s major concerns related to decriminalizing drugs is that such action would increase drug use.
“I think the country is pretty clear in its feelings about tobacco,” Rusche said. “Smoking is not good for you. But what the public doesn’t understand is what legitimate industries have the freedom to do. The First Amendment protects free speech – they are free to go after children ( through advertising ) and try to get them engaged in smoking. And smoking is actually going up among kids and among women.”
Legalizing marijuana and other drugs would allow producers to openly, and legally, promote drug use, she said.
Both sides in the argument cite statistics they say help support their cause. Rusche said about 150 million Americans use alcohol on a regular basis; about 65 million use tobacco; and about 13 million use illicit drugs. “By keeping drugs illegal, we are able to hold down the number of people who use them,” she said.
Proponents of decriminalization use proportionate numbers to point out the relatively small number of drug users vs. the amount of negative publicity they receive in relation to alcohol and tobacco users.
But the two sides can agree on this much, at least for now: The prospect of decriminalizing drugs remains a far-fetched idea in the minds of most Americans.
“Any change will be done slowly,” Ernst said.
A Joint Proposition
David Stevens
Southwest News Service
Amarillo Globe-News
July 13, 2000
The issue of drug legalization has been brought to the forefront in New Mexico.
The arguments for decriminalizing drugs go something like this:
The millions of dollars the United States spends on fighting them could be better spent educating children and young adults about the dangers of substance abuse.
Drug addicts do not belong in jail; they should be hospitalized and treated for their illness.
Alcohol and tobacco pose far greater threats to society.
The government’s approach to eliminating drug abuse isn’t working and it’s time to try something else.
Drug laws are civil rights violations. In the words of one organization that’s working to decriminalize drugs: “We do not advocate drug use, but in America adults have the freedom to make their own choices, even stupid ones, as long as they do not harm others.” But even if all of the above were true, Clovis, N.M., district attorney Randall Harris is not convinced that decriminalizing drugs would help solve the problems they create. That’s because, he says, drug users are unable to limit harm to themselves.
“It doesn’t just affect you,” he said. “It affects all of us.”
New Mexico Republican governor Gary Johnson gave the issue credibility last year when he began publicly advocating the legalization of marijuana. He also supports decriminalization of other drugs.
The Associated Press reported Johnson has repeatedly called the nation’s war on drugs a failure. He says drug legalization would reduce crime and drug-related health problems.
But his ideas have not been embraced – not by government officials or the population at large. The secretary of New Mexico’s department of public safety resigned his post in protest of Johnson’s stance.
A newspaper poll showed Johnson’s approval rating plummeted from 54 to 35 percent once his views on decriminalizing drugs became known.
State G0P officials have acknowledged they’re concerned the governor’s push could complicate the party’s efforts to gain seats in the state Legislature this fall.
And some parents have complained they don’t want their children to hear Johnson’s message, especially at school.
Still, thousands are listening. And the idea is beginning to attract attention, if not overwhelming support.
Americans Against the Drug War, a Dallas-based not-for-profit corporation, claims it represents mere than 15,000 grass-roots activists throughout the United States.
Those activists contend:
“The large profits associated with prohibited substances are in large part responsible for the growth of organized crime and gang activities in the United States.
“The United States now imprisons more people per capita than any other nation ( as a result of its drug laws ).
“Minors have fairly easy access to illicit drugs.
“The drug war is a failure on all fronts unless you happen to make your livelihood fighting it.” Harris is among those fighters.
“I like Gary Johnson a bunch. I certainly share some of his concerns. I am not waving a banner that says the war on drugs is working and what we’re doing is 100-percent guaranteed because it’s not. There are a lot of areas that he has concerns about that I do too,” Harris said.
But, “No. He hasn’t been able to convince me that legalizing drugs is the answer.”
That’s because Harris said he’s seen the negative impact of substance abuse up close.
“I’ve gone on welfare checks, on child-abuse cases where the parents were passed out ( from drug use ),” he said. “Last year we went to a house where a little baby – four or five months old – was just skin and bones. There were kids playing in the house with marijuana bongs and
these sorts of things. I said to myself, ‘That’s what people need to see.’ It’s not just a matter of people smoking marijuana when they want to – it affects families, relationships, jobs; it affects people’s ability to do a lot of things.”
Oldham County Sheriff David Medlin agrees.
“I’ve watched it destroy people’s lives,” he said.
“What I’ve seen with drugs, somebody may just do it one time and they’re addicted and there’s no easy way out. I’m not saying that happens every time, but I do know people personally that that has happened to them.”
Rolf Ernst is a spokesman for Americans Against the Drug War, which supports decriminalization.
“Nobody debates, and we don’t either, that there are harmful effects involved for some people in the usage of some drugs,” he said. “However, we also feel that group is somewhat exaggerated. With marijuana we believe certainly very few people are ( negatively ) impacted by extreme measures.
“You have to outweigh the negative affects vs. possible gains you could achieve. I think what we’re seeing over time in the drug war is the laws have led to numerous negative effects such as – erosion of civil rights.”
Ernst said AADW advocates changing laws so that possession and use of drugs would be legal. The organization wants all adult drug use decriminalized based on the idea that “no individual right should be revoked until it is shown that 1 ) the action, in and of itself, causes harm to others; and 2 ) prohibiting the act will positively affect the whole of society,” according to its Internet Web site.
Rick Day, a member of Dallas-based National Organization for the Repeal of Marijuana Laws, doesn’t want to go quite that far.
“I’m not for the legalization of lab-based drugs at this point because, quite frankly, ( some lab-based drugs ) are dangerous things,” he said.
But Day does support the legalization of “earth-based drugs,” which he describes as anything produced naturally. Lab-based drugs are those radically changed from their original state by chemicals, such as methamphetamines.
While Day said he recently stepped down from the board of directors of AADW because it did not distinguish between earth-based drugs and lab-based drugs, he still agrees with many AADW philosophies.
“I don’t think anybody should go to jail for making a personal choice – and that’s everything from prostitution to homosexuality to gambling to wife swapping to taking certain drugs. Nobody should be put in jail for that – only when their actions extend (to harm ) somebody else,” he said.
Sue Rusche, executive director of Atlanta-based National Families in Action, said she’s heard that argument before and isn’t swayed.
“What I say to those people is ‘Fine. So long as you’re willing to sign this paper to never ask taxpayers to cover the cost of any drug-related illness,”‘ she said.
Like the prosecutor Harris, she doesn’t think drug users can limit harm to themselves.
NFIA’s published mission is to “help families and communities prevent drug use among children by promoting policies based on science.”
One of the organization’s major concerns related to decriminalizing drugs is that such action would increase drug use.
“I think the country is pretty clear in its feelings about tobacco,” Rusche said. “Smoking is not good for you. But what the public doesn’t understand is what legitimate industries have the freedom to do. The First Amendment protects free speech – they are free to go after children ( through advertising ) and try to get them engaged in smoking. And smoking is actually going up among kids and among women.”
Legalizing marijuana and other drugs would allow producers to openly, and legally, promote drug use, she said.
Both sides in the argument cite statistics they say help support their cause. Rusche said about 150 million Americans use alcohol on a regular basis; about 65 million use tobacco; and about 13 million use illicit drugs. “By keeping drugs illegal, we are able to hold down the number of people who use them,” she said.
Proponents of decriminalization use proportionate numbers to point out the relatively small number of drug users vs. the amount of negative publicity they receive in relation to alcohol and tobacco users.
But the two sides can agree on this much, at least for now: The prospect of decriminalizing drugs remains a far-fetched idea in the minds of most Americans.
“Any change will be done slowly,” Ernst said.