I readily admit to having a considerable amount of prejudice against our illegal-drug laws ever since "druggies" broke my jaw and stole our car in front of a local ATM. This experience made me think about the way our drug laws are often harmful to innocent citizens.

I claim no expertise on how to deal with the United States' huge appetite for illicit drugs, but I do know a losing proposition when I see one: It is clear that our present punitive policies concerning illegal drugs are not working.

Prohibition fails again
Our new Prohibition has worked no better than the last one during the Twenties and Thirties. As in that long-ago failed war, keeping addictive substances away from addicts merely drives up the cost of drugs (which, in themselves, are relatively inexpensive), spawns a black market, and produces an ever more savage class of gangster.

Consider the impacts of our War on Drugs:

• The enormous costs to the Federal and local governments of spying on, arresting, and incarcerating petty drug "offenders"
• The thefts and muggings done by addicts who can find no other way to pay for their habits
• The young drug salesmen enticing their younger peers into sampling and becoming addicted to drugs
• The vast sums of (untaxed) money reaped by the sale of illegal drugs sold on the streets--and the resulting open warfare among rival drug-selling gangs
• The break up of families all up and down the economic spectrum

I remember reading 10 years ago that the addicts then living in Baltimore (which is but a mid-sized city) were stealing $3 billion each year.

Decriminalization, not legalization
What is the solution? A possible first step would be to decriminalize the use of drugs now declared illegal. But on hearing this idea lawmakers and private citizens quickly assume and fear that "legalizing" hard drugs would lead to even greater drug use--in a country that already leads the world in this undesirable statistic. But did you know that in 2001 Portugal passed a law that abolished all criminal penalties for personal possession of drugs--including marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine--and that country has never experienced any of the catastrophic societal disruptions predicted by some experts in the U.S. 

Assessing the Portuguese experiment
An April 2009 report that was commissioned by the Cato Institute (a libertarian think tank) tells what happened in Portugal after it began its "experiment." According to this report, which studied the situation for the first 5 years after the law was implemented, the lifetime use of any illegal drug declined among 7th through 9th graders, and even among older teenagers. There was also a drop in the number of new HIV infections caused by the sharing of dirty needles. 

These Portuguese drug policies continue to the present day. People who are found guilty of possessing small amounts of drugs are sent not to jail but to a panel comprised of a psychologist, social worker, and legal adviser. These professionals determine what treatment would be appropriate for the person. (Interestingly, guilty parties who refuse such treatment plans do not suffer any criminal punishment.)  

The number of Portuguese citizens seeking treatment for their addictions quickly doubled after the law went into effect, but even this sudden surge of applicants in search of help didn't pose insurmountable problems: The money the government saved by restoring addicts to healthy and productive (and tax-paying) lives freed up the funds needed for more treatment centers and halfway houses. The results of this “experiment” in Portugal are described in an article in the April 26 issue of Time magazine.  

Or consider the Netherlands, where a “tolerance policy” allows persons to possess up to 5 grams of cannabis for personal use, without fear of being prosecuted. These laws in the Netherlands (as they should) make the importing of any classified drug a serious offense, possibly punishable by a long jail sentence. Also prohibited is driving a motor vehicle while under the influence of a drug that impairs driving ability. 

What can the U.S. learn from these countries?
We in the U.S. must devise some system of dispensing “illicit" drugs safely and cheaply, like the state-run stores in Pennsylvania that sell alcohol. Such dispensaries, perhaps with physicians on staff, would allow addicts to live decent lives until they want to kick their habit, and would take away the monetary incentive to sell street drugs, thus greatly reducing the resulting problems for all of society. 

I certainly do not claim to have the solution to the use of illicit drugs in this country, but I strongly believe it is time for us to come up with a new and wiser solution for the problem.