October, 1991 The Broncos'Voke Page?
DRUGS, CRIME AND PRISON-OVERCROWDING: THE
CONNECTION IS CLEAR
It seems that many of the urban ills that
plague America today commenced with
the passage of the Harrison Narcotics
Act of 1919. This act, effectively linking
criminality to narcotic use and abuse,
has spiraled - after 72 years (1 lifetime)
- into the repressive, class-oriented drug
laws we have today. As of 1991,
America is winning the "jail-your-own
sweepstakes," incarcerating more of its
citizens than South Africa, the Soviet
Union or China. Many who languish in
U.S. prisons and jails (50%) do so
because they broke drug laws. Their
numbers have swelled the court dockets
and prisons. America’s inability to deal
realistically and pragmatically with the
current drug situation has effectively
provided many crimes and caused the
current prison overcrowding situation
that we face. Only through a new
analysis and approach to the drug
situation in America will urban crime,
prison capacities, and drug abuse
decrease.
The specific nature of the drug
problem in America presents unique
scenarios to theorists due to the culture
of this country and the proliferation of
specific synthetic drugs. The immense
popularity of cocaine and its inexpensive
derivative - crack - is largely a product
of post 1970s America and all that this
culture embraces. Cocaine is a feel
good, ego-enhancing illusory stimulant
with a high probability of addiction that
increases as one becomes enamored and
familiar with the drug. It’s weight by
volume (very small) as compared to the
weight by volume of other illicit drugs,
like marijuana, make it a distributors
and users dream. American culture
emphasizes the efficient, space saving
qualities in appliances, and it carries
over into the drugs American like as
well. It’s addictive principles, unlike
those of other narcotics like heroin, are
erratic and maddening. Yet, in our
consumerist culture, this maddening
addiction is a boon to the drug
entrepreneur who views addiction as
’reliable business/customers’.
Since 1914, the policy of the
U.S. has been to treat the use and abuse
of drugs as criminal offenses.
Regardless of the fact that the criminal
justice system has no knowledge ot the
origins or treatment of drug addiction,
they have become the guardians ot
America’s moral dilemma. In 1936,
August Volmer, a former president of
the International Association of Chiefs
of Police, said, "Drug addiction is not a
police problem. It has never been &
never can be solved by policemen. Drug
abuse is a medical problem & it there is
a solution it will be discovered by
scientific and medical experts." If
August Volmer cotild see the current
situation in America and the impact
illicit drugs and their inherent crime
capacity have made on the criminal
justice system overall, he’d say, "I told
you so."
The current situation in
America is almost too frightening to
behold:
(1) According to the Senate Judiciary
Committee report in 1990, there are
more than 2.2 million cocaine/crack
addicts in America.
(2) Nearly 50% of all federal prisoners
are now serving time for drug-related
offenses.
(3) Organized crime reaps a staggering
$50 to $60 billion a year in profits from
the sale and distribution of illegal drugs.
(4) The budget of 1990 to fight the
’War on Drugs’ was $9.5 billion, $1.5
billion of which was allotted for prison
construction and expansion.
(5) Approximately 1/3 of Black men
from poor urban areas are arrested on
drug charges by the age of 30.
(6) Nearly 1 in 4 black males between
the ages of 20 and 29 is in prison, on
probation or parole, or awaiting trial.
The statistics go on and on, just as the
reality becomes more maddening.
The public tends lo forget that
’drug problems’ stem from ’drug laws’.
From the moralistic brow-beating dmg
law-offenders receive from the rest of
society, one would assume anti-drug
legislation has been in America forever,
or worse yet is ’natural.’ Well, let it be
known - Drug laws are as man-made as
crack.
Previous to 1914, narcotics, like
heroin and cocaine were ruled and
governed by medical authorities and
pharmacists. This is not to say or imply
that addiction or misuse did not occur.
To the contrary, they did. However,
society as well as law enforcement
authorities, viewed and treated the
addict and abuser as someone to be
guided to help and possibly pitied. They
were not viewed as criminal, therefore,
their criminal impulses were largely nil.
It was the initiation of laws that changed
America’s view of addiction, yet did
nothing helpful to alter the reality of
drug use and abuse.
America’s laws against
intoxication have bred greater evils than
the evil they claimed or wished to
eliminate. The U.S. never had organized
crime until Prohibition. Prohibition did
nothing to decrease alcohol consumption
or prevent alcoholism which were the
stated reasons for its enactment. To the
contrary, alcohol use increased during
Prohibition and along with this increase
came the source of many more problems
MONEY and GREED,
Prohibition created an economic
system that is still currently utilized: the
economics of risk. Alcohol, deemed
illegal, could still be obtained; However,
due to the risk of being caught by the
law, the price of alcohol increased
dramatically.
Fueled by greed and the
knowledge that immense profits could
be reaped if one’s adversaries were dead
or persuaded into compliance, violence
became the ’protector’ of illicit
marketing.
There is very little difference
between Prohibition America and Drug
War America. Crime has increased,
prison populations have increased,
profits have increased, and the use of
drugs has increased. Nothing is or will
be accomplished in this dangerous,
ofttimes fatal environment.
James Cook, writing for Forbes
Magazine, described the paradox of anti
drug legislation:
"Cocaine and heroin are as
much manifactured products as gasoline
or oatmeal. But their retail prices are
determined not by their production and
distribution costs or even by supply and
demand but by the impact of law
enforcement - the risk the supplier
assumes in delivering an illegal product
lo a customer.... the grater the risk, the
greater the markup."
In essence this says, the more Jaws
enacted against drug trafficking and
sales, the greater the profits for drug
dealers. Isn’t that a kick in the rubber
parts?
Over 50% of the current federal
prison population is composed of people
convicted of drug related offenses.
Included in this related is everything
from extortion, murder, and armed
robbery to international drug smuggling.
However, this is on the ’high end’ of
the drug crime scale. There exists
minute differences in the motives of the
crimes of drug addicted users, petty
street dealers and national and
international smugglers and ’kingpins’.
The dmg user is strictly
concerned with instant gratification of
the physical need for the drug. It is the
rare blown-up example of a crack addict
killing someone for money or drugs.
The crack addict who possesses a gun
tries to sell it, not use it. The impetus to
violence is only increased when the
means of achieving the drug (money) or
the drug itself is present and denied.
Crack addicts are weak due to the
debilitating effects of the drug. Their
attention span is short and only focuses
on the need for the drug. Petty crimes,
like theft and shoplifting are their
trademark.
The petty drug dealer/street
dealer has a different interest and
motive. Many street dealers have their
own habits to support and some are
simply greedy. It is the rare street dealer
that is going anywhere besides to the
morgue or to jail. Depending on their
STORY
need, they are more likely to pursue
violent crimes to achieve their ends.
However, in just as many instances, the
street dealers’ only crime is the sale of
his wares.
The national and international
kingpin has the largest interest at stake.
He views his criminal actions as long
term business plans and insurance to his
power. Extortion, murder-for-hire,
bribery, kidnapping are a smattering of
what he is willing to do to protect his
billion dollar empire.
These classes of drug criminals,
all dependent upon laws for their status,
become obsolete in a world where drugs
are medical and not criminal problems.
The fact that a large percentage
of these people are lingering behind bars
should alert conscientious tax-payers.
Each year, for the past 5 years, the U.S.
government has increased the budgets of
federal prisons. Many states, like NC,
have voted to increase prison
construction. For what? To fill with
more ’criminals’, of course. However, it
is the disillusioned who see this never
ending circle as the answer.
Many tax-payers assume these
measures are supposed to decrease
crime and decrease the use of drugs.
Little do they know that their tax dollars
used for enforcement are in essence
inflating the problem. Tax dollars are to
be used for the common good; and the
common good is surely different than
the common morality.
History clearly documents that
prohibition is not the path to eradication
of any problem. We must begin to shift
our way of thinking concerning
intoxication in order to decrease the
social ills that are a by-product of
narcotic illegality. "Those who fail lo
learn from the past are condemned to
repeat it."
- Barbara Beebe
This is the 1 st of a 2-part series. In Part
2; "Toward a Platform of Drug
Legalization"
IN MOST IF NOT ALL OUR
AMERICAN COLLEGES THE
TRUTH IS DENIED A HEAR
ING AND EXCLUDED FROM
THE CLASSROOM IF FT SEEMS
TO CONFLICT WITH THE
SELFISH INTERESTS OF THE
MONEYED CLASSES - FROM
WHOM ENDOWMENTS ARE
TO BE EXPECTED. - WILLIS J.
ABBOT, JOURNALIST, 1899