U.S. - End the prohibition of heroin

[S.J.B.]

End the prohibition of heroin
Jack Cole
The Boston Globe
August 24th, 2014

FOR 14 of the 26 years I served with the New Jersey State Police, I worked undercover narcotics. On the job, I saw first-hand the addictive power of opiates. Yet I also came to understand that the destruction of whole communities did not primarily result from the use or misuse of those drugs. No, the damage came from people — cops — doing what I did: dragging buyers and sellers away from their families and slamming them into the criminal justice system, depriving both them and their neighborhoods of all hope. I witnessed people we disparagingly called “junkies” dying with needles in their arms not because heroin is a poison but because the heroin was poisoned. I did more harm than good, and the harder my colleagues and I tried, the more damage we did.

Today, the relentless, appalling loss of life associated with heroin and other dangerous drugs has become commonplace. As a police officer, I understand the instinct to mete out punishment, send a message, put somebody away for abusing drugs. Nonetheless, my experience has shown me that it is futile, counterproductive, and dangerous to try to arrest our way out of this very real problem.

Heroin’s status as a Schedule I illegal drug has ceded its control and distribution to the most unscrupulous and unregulated players among us with the predictably tragic results. Prohibition has completely failed to curb either supply or demand for opiates. It has not only failed to protect our young and vulnerable, but also cost many their lives — deaths from heroin overdose alone have increased ninefold since the drug war began. The whole family of opiates is dangerous, seductive, and addictive under the best of circumstances, but when the circumstances are defined by a destabilizing cat-and-mouse game for those in the thrall of addiction, those dangers are intensified.

Indeed, the costs of the drug war have been enormous and with nothing to show in terms of increasing public safety. The US judicial system is overwhelmed with drug offenses. Yet, in just one example, Edward Walsh, Taunton’s police chief, recently admitted that a high-profile — and presumably resource-intensive — arrest of a major dealer failed to reduce either drug use or street prices, and that is precisely the opposite of what drug warriors promise. Other cities, such as Chicago, have suffered from Al Capone-like street violence. And after nearly a half century of the US as the arrest capital of the world, the endless cycle in and out of our prisons shows little sign of slowing.

Draconian drug laws have also done little to improve public health. That’s easy to see by comparing the impact of heroin to that of another potentially lethal substance, alcohol.

Read the full story here.

 

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I thought this was going to be on Alternet or Police State USA. Good to see that it's in a major newspaper.

I don't think supervised injection is legalization though. One still puts himself at great risk when he buys it, and limiting sales to the black market does nothing to decrease violence.

 

[S.J.B.]

I don't think supervised injection is legalization though.

Oh, absolutely not. But it's a small step towards it.

 

[cj]

Good article

 

[neversickanymore]

Great article Thanks for posting it SJB!

 

[ro4eva]

This is very encouraging considering it's been published in the Boston Globe. And the comments are also surprisingly against the status quo, for the most part.

The (former?) officer has written a great opinion piece regarding the fact that criminalizing certain drug use and adopting a "tough on crime" strategy has only served to create countless unintended long term problems and tragedies.

The truth is that the vast majority of recreational users of controlled substances are not violent individuals. They are not a danger to society, nor should they be treated as such.

Unfortunately, decades of stupendously biased propaganda has had a huge impact on the way that this minority of controlled substance consumers are treated in general.

The propaganda has been incredibly pervasive. It has influenced the views of those who swear to "do no harm." Yet by choosing to write on a patient's medical chart that he is a "drug abuser," the damage has already been done, and bridges have been burned. And when he requires it the most, that patient will probably never again receive treatment up to par with those who are apparently not "drug abusers," however some of them do happen to chronically consume very large amounts of tobacco/nicotine products, and some more do happen to chronically consume very large amounts of alcoholic beverages on a regular basis - yet they are exempt from the title of "drug abuser."

It's really sad what has become of these people who have been hoodwinked by their government into stubbornly believing outright lies.

On the contrary, it's very encouraging to see so many of these people realizing that it's all been an enormous sham, and it's not doing any good in the long term whatsoever - but rather, things have gotten progressively worse.

About 2 years ago, some of us began asking (and hoping) that any politician, bureaucrat, healthcare professional, and journalist who are against this legendary flop in the allocation and spending of tax payer money on people who are not inherently dangerous because of their preference for intoxicant, that they muster every ounce of courage possible in order to publicly speak out against the decision to stigmatize and marginalize a group of individuals, the vast majority of whom have not victimized another human being as a result of their use or preference of mind altering substances.

Well, I am so glad to know that not only have politicians, bureaucrats, healthcare professionals, and journalists condemned the War on Drugs, but also celebrities, and community and spiritual leaders as well, which was not expected but very, very welcomed.

So I'm quite optimistic that, despite the desperate but futile attempts of those who would stand to lose money from profiting off of our unjust suffering by way of attempting to stall the progress we have made, overall it appears that the word has reached a lot of people around the world, and they have reasoned that this is in fact wrong or at least pointless, and that it needs to stop.

 

[Crankinit]

Great article and it's great to see this common sense creeping into gradually more mainstream publications, but I'm tired of 'ex-' people speaking out against drugs, ex-DEA, ex-politicians, ex-police officers. They need to speak out while they're still in a position of authority, still in the position to make some change.