The Rockefeller Laws.

When It Comes to Drug Laws, the Jokes End
By CLYDE HABERMAN
Published: March 14, 2006

Most of the 100 or so people on hand, it seemed safe to say, would change the existing statutes in a heartbeat. They murmured approval when Robert Gangi, the executive director of the Correctional Association, described the Rockefeller laws as “wasteful,” “ineffective,” “unjust” and “marked by racial bias.”

Clearly in the minority at this gathering was Bridget G. Brennan, the city’s special narcotics prosecutor. “I’m not going to stand here and tell you that we can incarcerate our way out of the drug problem,” Ms. Brennan said. But let’s not fool ourselves, she added. Many who land in jail are not poor schmoes caught with a few grains of cocaine. “Narcotics goes hand in hand with violence,” she said. “It goes hand in hand with other crimes.”

But are those crimes a direct result of the criminalization of drug possession? That’s what I want to know. I’d like to see the statistics behind that statement, and all the cause and effect factors, too. Like poverty, lack of access to a good education, etc. God, it just pisses me off how they try to pass this kind of stuff as so black and white. It’s not and that’s part of the problem.

I’m still a proponent of legalization. Or, at minimum, decriminalization. The drug war is not working. It’s time to try something else.