Q. Your book is called Why
Our Drug Laws Have Failed. What characterizes the failure of our drug
laws?
A. Our policy of Drug
Prohibition has failed from every standpoint imaginable: unnecessary
prison growth, increased taxes, increased crime and corruption here and
abroad, loss of civil liberties, decreased health, diversion of resources
that are needed to address other problems in society. I could go on and
on…
Q. If that is the case, why do we continue with a policy that
so many prople agree has failed?
A. There are
numbers of practical reasons: We are fighting decades of rhetoric which
incorrectly assume that the answer for drug use and abuse is prison. And
scores of politicians get elected and re-elected each year by posturing
about the need to get "tougher" on drugs. Another big reason for the
perpetuation of this failed policy is money- both legal and illegal. The
profit motive to sell small amounts of drugs for large amounts of money
simply overwhelms all efforts to restrict those sales. In addition, our
policy is fueled by the "runaway freight train" of federal money-every
federal agency we have is addicted to its drug war funding, and they do
not want to give it up.
Q. You are taking a pretty controversial position for a
Superior Court Judge. Do many other judges feel the same way you do about
this?
A. Yes. But, like with
most public officials, there is a difference in what they say privately as
opposed to what they will say in public. However, my book quotes comments
from more than forty judges nationwide about their experiences and
recommendations for change, and many of these judges are speaking publicly
about this issue for the first time.
Q. Considering your position, then, can you offer any
optimism?
A. I agree that people
are discouraged under our present policy. But I bring good news: there is
hope. We have viable options, and they are working in numbers of places
around the world. My book gets very specific about those options.
Q. But these drugs are dangerous. Shouldn't dangerous things
be illegal?
A. Many things in our
society are dangerous, but making them illegal is not the answer. Does
anyone really believe that making tobacco illegal would reduce the harm it
causes? What about glue, gasoline, chain saws and high cholesterol foods?
Further, if you think about it, we have at least some controls with regard
to the sales and use of alcohol and tobacco, because they are regulated by
the government. We have no controls at all with these illicit substances,
because they are controlled by the mob.
Q. But doesn't a change in policy send the wrong message to
our children?
A. I answer that by
asking you what you think is the right message? We have more people in
prison in our country than anywhere else in the world. People, including
many children, have died from drug overdoses because of unknown strength
and purity of these substances, and because their "friends" did not seek
prompt medical attention for them fearing-legitimately-that they would get
into legal trouble if they came forward. And, far from protecting our
children, our present policy is actually recruiting them to a lifestyle of
drug usage and drug selling.
Q. That sounds like you are advocating drug use. Are you?
A. I hate these drugs so much that I want to
change our policy so that we can reduce drug usage and the other harms
these dangerous drugs are causing. These drugs could not be made more
available than they are under our present system-we can't even keep them
out of our prisons, much less off our streets. But change will come as
soon as people realize one simple truth: Just because we discuss drug
policy, or just because we realize we have options to it, or just because
we choose to employ one or more of those options does not mean that we
condone drug use or abuse. As soon as people understand that simple fact,
we will move forward to a more effective policy, because what we are doing
now cannot stand the light of day.
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