To the Editor:
Drugs have not “won the war.” With a comprehensive anti-drug strategy in place, involving foreign policy, enforcement, education, treatment, prevention and media, America’s overall drug use has declined almost by half in the past three decades — from 14.1 percent of the population in 1979 to 8.3 percent now who used drugs in the past month. In addition, cocaine use, including crack — the source of much of the former record-high violent crime numbers — is down 70 percent. Want to go back?
Legalization would be a catastrophe. Nicholas D. Kristof uses the analogy of legal alcohol. But there are an estimated 15 million alcoholics in this country and 5 million drug addicts; do we want the 5 to become 15?
“I had arrested a 19-year-old, in his own home, for possession of marijuana,” he recalled. “I literally broke down the door, on the basis of probable cause. I took him to jail on a felony charge.” The arrest and related paperwork took several hours, and Mr. Stamper suddenly had an “aha!” moment: “I could be doing real police work.”But legalization would really be a catastrophe. Weiner continues to sink to the bottom:
Hospital emergency rooms would be flooded, and crime would return to the crisis levels of the 1970s and ’80s, when drug use was at its highest. Domestic violence and date rape would be substantially higher. The majority of arrestees in 10 major American cities recently tested positive for illegal drugs, a remarkable indicator of a link between drugs and crime.Okay. I'm not sure they ever discussed this at board-room meetings in the drug czar's office, but I'll spell it out to Weiner just in case: There is no "remarkable indicator" between drugs and crime. Violence was high thirty years ago and remains serious today because the fucking things were and are illegal. It would be quite shocking to think that someone of Weiner's experience doesn't realize this, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he's willfully lying. Weiner bemoans this imaginary dystopia where those poor saps who have been infected by "The Reefer" are date raping everything in sight and beating their wives. In theory, those employed at the drug czar's office should have at least a modicum of experience with real-world drug use. I'll let Weiner in on a secret: The first thing that pops into someone's head after he's just taken a bong hit is not "Man, you know what sounds good right now? Date rape." It's hilarious to blame violence on the currently-illegal cocaine and marijuana when alcohol is assuredly the primary culprit in these types of crimes.
But I must quote this last sentence again:
The majority of arrestees in 10 major American cities recently tested positive for illegal drugs, a remarkable indicator of a link between drugs and crime.Too funny for words. Honestly, the Times should print a retraction or something--it's that bad. Okay, Robert Weiner, I will apply your logic to a simpler example.
Let's say I am a model son. Great student, never do anything wrong, always do my chores. All of a sudden, my mom institutes a rule: No cookies upstairs. One day, she catches me with cookies upstairs. I have to go in time-out. Another day, she catches me with cookies upstairs. Same punishment. And again. And again. It seems as though every time I got in trouble, I tested positive for cookies. Indeed, there was a remarkable--truly remarkable, I say--link between eating cookies and getting in trouble. Clearly, the only logical response available to my mother is to crackdown hard on cookies and continue this policy ad infinitum.
Robert Weiner: Singlehandedly undermining the credibility of the National Drug Policy Office.
