With an obvious left slant to the political landscape in the U.S., 2009 has seen more discussion about decriminalizing drug use, specifically cannabis, that at anytime in recent memory.

The U.S. “War on Drugs” is all about morality, and has little to do with reality. After billions of dollars spent, and tens of thousands incarcerated, the U.S. has the highest drug related per capita arrest, conviction and incarceration rate in the world. And of course, drug use in the U.S. continues to be three to four times that of the next closest country.

A recent study by Glenn Greenwald, attorney and best-selling author, under consignment to the CATO Institute (listed as a “Right Wing” think tank), shows that the complete decriminalization of drugs in Portugal, has been a resounding success. Much to the amazement of the conventional wisdom of the right, drug use did not increase, it decreased. After a couple years, violent crime and criminal activity surrounding drug trafficking has fallen drastically.

This will not be the only such decriminalization. Many other countries are eyeing Portugal’s achievements. Portugal did not have an easy road either. There had to be adjustments made to policy and approach as time went on. But it is the consensus that they will never again return to criminalizing drugs in Portugal. In countries that decriminalized only cannabis, the results are good, but not as stark as the complete decriminalization of all drugs, as in Portugal.

I, for one, am a right-of-center Independent. My politics generally follow the most achievable and sensible policy. But, I have been one of those misguided hypocrites that used drugs in my youth, but supported heavy legal penalties later in life after my house was robbed by people trying to get valuables to sell for drug money. As I grew older; as my own children went through young adulthood, I grew more fearful for their safety from “the drug dealers” lurking in every school cafeteria.

But then, slowly, I saw the disparities in the law around drugs vs. other offenses. Mandatory sentencing laws affected several friends and their families. Then a friend’s son faced a life ruining arrest, but his attorney prevailed. If convicted, the ¼ ounce of cocaine found in his apartment could have made him a life-long felon at the age of 19.

Today we face overcrowding of prisons and jails where over 25% are incarcerated on mandatory sentences for trivial offenses. Our tax dollars provide billions in training, arms and materials to dozens of foreign countries that export drugs. We fight an endless war along our boarders with dozens now dying daily in Mexico… all on account of illegal drugs. Thousands die. Millions are spent on law enforcement and interdiction. And the drug use, drug killings and drug crime continue unabated.

I also look at the moral impact of drugs on our society. Young women are especially vulnerable to drug related abuse and crime. From prostitution to neglect and physical abuse, women, especially those with children, fear to avail themselves of help or social programs for fear of loosing their children or going to jail… so they simply endure the addictions, abuse and heartache.

I remember when I was young; one of the lures of drug experimentation was simply the fact that it was illegal. It had little real ‘value’ outside of claiming my independence from the status quo. Now, older and wiser, I see more clearly the fallacy of the “War on Drugs”.

“There is clearly a growing recognition around the world and even in the U.S. that, strictly on empirical grounds, criminalization approaches to drug usage and, especially, the “War on Drugs,” are abject failures, because they worsen the exact problems they are ostensibly intended to address. “Strictly on empirical grounds” means excluding from the assessment: (a) ideological questions regarding the legitimacy of imprisoning adults for consuming drugs they choose to consume; (b) the evisceration of Constitutional and civil liberties wrought by drug criminalization; and (c) the extraordinary sums of money devoted to the War on Drugs both domestically and internationally.” - Glenn Greenwald

It is time for a non-ideological, scientific, realistic debate on the causes and effects of drug use, and the complete cessation of the war on symptoms. A war on the problem has been missing in this debate. We need to now address the “Law on Drugs” and remove the fulcrum on which organized crime and personal addiction balance.

JB

Sources and References:

CATO. (2009). Drug Decriminalization in Portugal, POLICY FORUM, Friday, April 3, 2009; CATO Institute; retrieved March 15, 2009, from: http://cato.org/event.php?eventid=5887

Chin, B. (2008). Mass. voters OK decriminalization of marijuana, The Boston Globe, retrieved March 15, 2009, from: http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/11/question_2_setu.html

Degenhardt, L. et al (2008). Toward a Global View of Alcohol, Tobacco, Cannabis, and Cocaine Use: Findings from the WHO World Mental Health Surveys, PLoS Medicine Vol. 5, No. 7, e141 doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050141, Summary retrieved March 15, 2009, from: http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0050141

Economist (2009). How to stop the drug wars, from The Economist print edition; retrieved March 15, 2009, from: http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13237193&source=hptextfeature

Greenwald, G. (2009). The success of drug decriminalization in Portugal, Salon.com; retrieved March 15, 2009, from: http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/03/14/portugal/index.html

Grudgings, S. (2009). Latin America ex-leaders urge reform of US drug war; Thomson Reuters; retrieved March 15, 2009, from: http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN11358345

Olszewski, D., et al. (2009), Women’s Voices – Experiences and perceptions of women who face drug-related problems in Europe; EMCDDA; retrieved March 15, 2009, from: http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/publications/thematic-papers/womens-voices

Peters, J. (2009). Albany Takes Step to Repeal ’70s-Era Drug Laws; The New York Times, retrieved March 15, 2009, from: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/05/nyregion/05rockefeller.html?_r=1

Reuter, R. (2009). Professional Bio Brief, Professor, School of Public Policy and Department of Criminology, University of Maryland, retrieved March 15, 2009, from: http://www.publicpolicy.umd.edu/facstaff/faculty/Reuter.html

RightWingWatch.org. (2009). Right Wing Organization Profiles: Index; People For the American Way; retrieved March 15, 2009, from: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/right-wing-organization-profiles-index

Wickham, D. (2009). Bill Clinton admits ‘regret’ on crack cocaine sentencing, USA today, retrieved March 15, 2009, from: http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2008/03/bill-clinton-ad.html

The 1990 Acid Rain Program is a market-based initiative taken by the EPA in an effort to reduce overall atmospheric levels of sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and nitrogen oxides (NO_x), which cause acid rain. The program is an implementation of an emissions trading (cap-and-trade) initiative that targets coal-burning power plants, allowing them to buy and sell emission permits (called “allowances”) according to individual needs and costs. The ARP was the first cap-and-trade program of its kind in the U.S.

The 101^st Congress crafted and passed the ARP legislation during the first two years of the Republican administration of U.S. President George H. W. Bush (with further amendments in 1995 & 2000).

Overall, the Program’s cap-and-trade system has been immensely successful in achieving its goals. Since the 1990s, SO₂ emissions have dropped 40%, and according to the Pacific Research Institute, acid rain levels have dropped 65% since 1976 (when monitoring first began). Furthermore, the EPA estimates that by 2010, the overall costs of complying with the program for businesses and consumers will be $1 billion to $2 billion a year, only one fourth of what was originally predicted.

But CO₂ (Carbon Dioxide) is an entirely different beast. Anytime anything is burned, CO₂ is created. It is a fact of nature and it cannot be ‘reduced’ through technology. Even natural gas, the lowest CO₂ creating fossil fuel, produces over 50% of the CO₂ produced by coal – but it is 4 times more expensive. And as supplies get scarcer, gas will only go higher. As more and more power plants reduce coal consumption, coal gets cheaper. It’s an economic irony that cannot be completely eliminated.

By and large the “clean coal” initiative has met only with disaster. No matter how effective the costly ‘scrubbers’ that sequester CO₂, they cannot eliminate it – they can only ‘capture’ it. And the quantities that they capture are extremely difficult to store as bio-hazard waste products. The need for air-tight CO₂ ‘storage’ is many times that of nuclear waste storage. So while many people, including President Obama, are under the impression that there is a “Clean Coal” alternative, the technology simply does not support the notion. Only the coal lobbyists believe ‘clean coal’ is a reality. No one that understands the science and the technology does, however.

This does not mean that there is not a solution somewhere on the horizon. There is promising research around biomass solutions (like algae masses that eat CO₂ and emit oxygen) and other technologies – but the scalability is not even close yet. More research may be the key – but we are fooling ourselves if we think ‘clean coal’ is just a matter of will, effort and money. It is much more than that.

Once again the government is looking hard and long at a cap-and-trade initiative to attack the CO₂ and other greenhouse emissions. And the Republicans – in true allegiance to the coal industry lobby – are fighting it tooth and nail.

In any event, if we are going to truly find a ‘clean coal’ alternative it will only be when we have the money and the research resources to put to the task. A cap-and-trade initiative for greenhouse gases will provide that stimulus to the industry and the companies that can develop solutions. While its success may not be as dramatic or as quick as the SO₂ and NO_x reductions in the Acid Rain legislation, it will take us in the right direction much faster than any reasonable alternative.

JB

Cappiello, D. (2009). Capitol power plant dims clean energy hopes, Associated Press, Retrieved March 1, 2009, from: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CONGRESS_POWER_PLANT?SITE=OKOKL&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

EDF (2007). The Cap and Trade Success Story, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), Retrieved March 1, 2009, from: http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=1085

Fehrenbacher, K. (2008). Former Energy Secretaries: Cap and Trade Is Bad for Business, earth2tech.com, Retrieved March 1, 2009, from: http://earth2tech.com/2008/11/12/former-energy-secretaries-cap-and-trade-is-bad-for-business/