Posted on 07/25/2002 11:44:55 AM PDT by logician2u
NEW SPECIAL TO AIR JULY 30 AT 10 PM EST ON ABC
How many wars can America fight? Now that we're at war against terrorism, can we afford to also fight a drug wars in Afghanistan, Colombia, and against millions of our own people? Is it wise to fight on two fronts? Should drugs be legalized? John Stossel asks whether some of the world's biggest problems stem not from the drugs themselves, but from the prohibition of drugs, in an ABC News special, "War on Drugs, A War On Ourselves With John Stossel." Stossel interviews drug sellers and users, farmers in Colombia, and government officials, in the new special, which airs on TUESDAY, JULY 30 (10:00-11:00 p.m., ET), on the ABC Television Network.
We know the awful things drug abuse does. We've seen the despair, the sunken face of the junkie, and the women who prostitute themselves for one more fix. But do we know the terrible things drug prohibition does? - the teens tempted into the underworld by flashy drug dealers, the cops corrupted by drug money, and the crime caused when commerce is driven into a black market, so buyers and sellers dealers fight over drugs that are literally worth their weight in gold? These are the unintended consequences of drug prohibition. Stossel visits the South Bronx, where residents live with these "unintended consequences."
More people in America are calling for radical solutions. Stossel talks to a Bronx priest who argues that life would be better if drugs were legal, "Legal means control," says Father Joseph Kane. "Illegal means the bad guys have control." California Judge James Gray agrees, "hold people accountable for what they do, not for what they put into their bodies," he says. The head of the DEA, Asa Hutchinson, disagrees, calling these arguments "giving in."
Stossel also reports from Colombia, South America, the country that produces most of America's cocaine and heroin, and talks with those who farm coca plants, and whose farms have been dive-bombed by planes spraying American herbicides. So far the spraying has not been effective. The CIA says Colombian coca production is up 25%. In addition, the vast profits created by drug prohibition are tearing Colombia apart. Today, murder is common, and Colombia is the country where people are most likely to be kidnapped. There have already been 15 attempts on the life of Colombia's next president; he's decided to stay in Europe until his inauguration next month.
No government in the world has found a way to eliminate the drug problem; but some countries claim to have found success on some levels. Stossel takes a first-hand look at alternatives from across the globe - including the "Dutch experiment" which separated "hard" and "soft" drugs 25 years ago, by legalizing the sale of marijuana in licensed "coffee shops". Teen marijuana use did rise after smoking was legalized, but a few years later it dropped, and today fewer Dutch teens use marijuana than American teens.
Holland's liberalization is not the exception anymore. Today police in most of Europe ignore marijuana use. In Spain, Italy and Luxembourg, they've decriminalized most drug use, and in Portugal recently, all drug use. Switzerland and a few other countries in Europe are now prescribing heroin to some addicts, and many countries in Europe don't treat use of hard drugs as a crime. Stossel visits a Rotterdam priest who allows addicts not only to smoke and inject heroin in "user rooms" in the church basement, but to buy and sell drugs there. Rotterdam's local police superintendent says the problem is "bigger" when the police interfere.
*Link to John Stossel's web site at ABC: http://abcnews.go.com/sections/2020/ABCNEWSspecials/JohnStossel.html
*Invite your friends to join the Stossel in the Classroom newsletter! All they need to do is go to our website and fill in their email address ( http://www.intheclassroom.org )
This will be a can't-miss program!
Dangerous words. Could cost a lot of people their jobs. Maybe we could staff an effective Border Security force with them?
EBUCK
Would be pretty hard to make it much easier...
Yes, it would. That doesn't alter the fact that it is the correct public policy position.
EBUCK
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