News
Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 19, 1995
The
Cruel Hoax of Legalization
by Thomas A. Constantine
Having spent 35 years
in law enforcement, most of it in the New York State Police, and now as
Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, I have seen and
heard first-hand the frustration of people fed up with crime, violence
and drugs.
American life in
many communities no longer resembles the quiet peace of our childhoods.
Drugs have degraded the quality of life so many of us have worked so hard
to improve. Yet despite my ability to understand, and despite years of
work to eradicate crime, violence and drugs, I am baffled by the cyclical
calls for the legalization of drugs according to proponents, the answer
to our problems. The latest entry in the legalization debate was the irresponsible
and inaccurate special Americas War on Drugs: Searching for Solutions
aired on ABC recently, which pretended to be an objective look at alternatives
to our current drug policies.
What ABC did not
take into account was that the overwhelming majority of Americans are
unequivocally opposed to legalizing drugs. They understand that many crimes
are committed by people using drugs not to support their habit, but because
drugs exacerbate the users criminal nature. The majority of Americans
understand that our crime problem will get worse, not better, if drugs
were more widely available and socially acceptable. They point to problems
currently caused by alcohol violence, absenteeism, enormous health-related
costs. And the great majority of Americans do not want drug users drawn
to their communities in search of cheap, plentiful drugs doled out in
cafes or public parks.
Why does the idea
of legalization appear and reappear when there is so little support for
such a notion? Some proponents of legalization are seeking to normalize
the behavior of drug-taking, and many of them are people who use, or have
used, drugs with little significant adverse impact. Many proponents are
wealthy members of the elite who live in the suburbs and have never seen
the damage that drugs and violence have wrought on poor communities, and
for whom legalization is a abstract concept.
Lets ask proponents
some of the hard questions that arise from their simplistic proposal.
Would we legalize all drugs--cocaine, heroin, and LSD, as well as marijuana?
Who could obtain these drugs--only adults? Who would distribute these
drugs--private companies, doctors or the government? Should the inner
city be the central distribution point, or should we have drug supermarkets
in Scarsdale, Chevy Chase and the Main Line? How much are we willing to
pay to address the costs of increased drug use? How will we deal with
the black market that will surely be created to satisfy the need for cheaper,
purer drugs? And when the legalizers answer all these questions, ask them
this: Can we set up a pilot legalization program on your block?
Our national and
international efforts to reduce the supply and use of drugs have a long
way to go. There are no easy answers, no quick fixes. A single television
special wont solve our drug problem. It took us 25 years to get
to this point in our current wave of drug use, and it will take us a little
longer to address it. We have made significant gains in reducing drug
use: The 1993 Household Survey released last summer indicated unequivocally
that drug use declined significantly from 1979 to 1993. Success will not
happen overnight, but we know what works; a constant, unflagging multi-faceted
effort to dismantle drug trafficking networks, educating our population
about the dangers of drugs and ensuring certain sanctions against drug
trafficking and use.
Legalizing drugs
is not a viable answer or a rational policy; it is surrender.
Thomas A. Constantine
is Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
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