Drug War

As a retired detective, I heartily agree with the Neill Franklin that the "war on drugs" has been a dysfunctional, disastrous policy without benefit ("Save a cop: End the drug war," March 7). Worse, because my colleagues spend so much time chasing drug offenders, we are missing the animals who hurt women and children. Detectives flying around in helicopters are not arresting the pedophiles in Internet chat rooms. Officers searching a car for pot miss the deadly drunk drivers who sail past those stops.

Regarding Dan Rodricks ' commentary on drugs at the city detention center, don't opinion columnists belong on the op-ed page, not in the news section ("Scandal at jail another symptom of war on drugs," April 27)? Mr. Rodricks blames a large share of crime and corruption on the drug war, and he advocates for decriminalizing or legalizing marijuana, cocaine and heroin. That would lead to a world of addicted people roaming the streets and driving cars in a drug-induced haze, with no motivation to work or be productive members of their families or of society.

T he window of opportunity to bring down drug trafficking organizations in Central and South America is quickly shrinking. However, despite its recent efforts, the Obama administration still lacks the one thing that we desperately need to win the fight against the cartels: a strategy. While it may seem like an obvious thing to have, the United States surprisingly lacks a comprehensive plan to bring down drug trafficking organizations. The federal government does have some counterdrug strategies, but they are either too broad - like the annual National Drug Control Strategy, which reads more like an "accomplishment report" of past successes rather than a "how to" manual - or too narrowly focused, like the National Southwest Border Counternarcotics Strategy, which addresses, among other things, ways to strengthen security along the border itself.

Baltimore State's Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein on Monday reached out to the black community by answering call-in questions on WOLB's Larry Young Morning Show about his controversial decision to not prosecute the three Baltimore police officers involved in the death of East Baltimore resident Anthony Anderson. On Thursday, Bernstein said his office had determined that Detective Todd A. Strohman used appropriate action when he tackled Anderson during a September drug arrest that resulted in broken ribs and a lacerated spleen, which killed the 46-year-old man. Officers said Anderson was attempting to swallow drugs while walking away from them, which caused Strohman to use a “bear hug” to take him to the ground and preserve evidence.

Regarding Dan Rodricks ' commentary on drugs at the city detention center, don't opinion columnists belong on the op-ed page, not in the news section ("Scandal at jail another symptom of war on drugs," April 27)? Mr. Rodricks blames a large share of crime and corruption on the drug war, and he advocates for decriminalizing or legalizing marijuana, cocaine and heroin. That would lead to a world of addicted people roaming the streets and driving cars in a drug-induced haze, with no motivation to work or be productive members of their families or of society.

The legacy of Prohibition, if Ken Burns is to be believed, is a system of organized crime not only empowered by that ill-fated law but so greatly enriched as to have become "too big to fail. " Kevin Sabet rightly, though grudgingly, concludes that America's current effort to incarcerate our way out of an intractable drug problem may be ever-so-slightly misguided ("Drug legalization: Wrong lesson of Prohibition," Oct. 9), but he has little to say about alternatives. He says nothing about the money trail, either in the liquor trade or in the drug trade.

Mike Gimbel's letter ignores some rudimentary facts regarding medical marijuana ("Md. wouldn't be able to control marijuana dispensaries," Readers respond, Feb. 4). Many polls have recently showed that as many as eight out of every 10 Americans say they want medical marijuana to be legalized and regulated. Unlike Mr. Gimbel, they understand that giving needed treatment to sick people needs to take precedence over the politics and misguided taboos of the past. Fourteen states already have medical marijuana, and the reason that many more have legislation pending is because for some severely ill patients, the treatment works.

Over the weekend, Baltimore Sun magazine published excerpts from a Q&A with Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III. After five years of talking to bad guys with guns, features editor Sam Sessa got him to dish on some more light-hearted topics such as his favorite music and his solo hike on the Appalachian Trail. You can read that interview here .  But Sam and the outgoing commissioner also talked the war on drugs, "The Wire," and his decision to retire. Here's what was left on the cutting room floor: You were a drug cop. What do you think about the push to decriminalize marijuana?

Several thousand miles, and a comparable cultural divide, separate Elkins, W.Va., from San Luis Potosi, Mexico. But recently, they became sister cities of a grim sort when law enforcement professionals lost their lives fighting America's longest, most costly and least winnable war: the so-called "war on drugs. " On Highway 57, halfway between Monterrey and Mexico City, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Jaime Zapata died when cartel gunmen ambushed the car carrying him and a colleague, who was wounded.

I have something for you. In June 2010, I wrote in this space about a book, "The New Jim Crow," by Michelle Alexander, which I called a "troubling and profoundly necessary" work. Ms. Alexander promulgated an explosive argument. Namely, that the so-called "War on Drugs" amounts to a war on African-American men and, more to the point, to a racial caste system nearly as restrictive, oppressive and omnipresent as Jim Crow itself. This because, although white Americans are far and away the nation's biggest dealers and users of illegal drugs, African-Americans are far and away the ones most likely to be jailed for drug crimes.

If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to subsidize Mexican drug cartels, prohibition is a success ("The nonsense of marijuana busts shown," Nov. 11). The drug war distorts supply and demand dynamics so that big money grows on little trees. There is a reason you don't see drug cartels sneaking into national forests to cultivate tomatoes and cucumbers. They cannot compete with legitimate farmers. If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to deter use, prohibition is a failure. The United States has double the rate of marijuana use as the Netherlands, where marijuana is legally available.

One hundred and ninety six people were murdered in Baltimore last year. Recent figures show our violent crime rate is more than two and a half times the national average. Many of these crimes spawned from the illegal nature of the drug trade, and the vast majority of them will go unsolved because so much police time is spent arresting drug users and low-level dealers. But this weekend, a cross-country caravan of victims of the drug war brings a message of change to Baltimore. Dozens of Mexican and U.S.-based drug war survivors, law enforcement officers and others with firsthand experience with failed drug laws have been traveling for weeks now, educating people about the destruction our policies have wrought and the futility of continuing them.

As the search for Baltimore's next top cop plods along, at least one candidate appears to be openly campaigning for the post - and has a well-known supporter.  Stanford "Neill" Franklin, who had a 33-year law enforcement career in Maryland and is now executive director of a national group of police against drug prohibition , seems to want the job. A web article appeared this week featuring endorsements for Franklin , including one from...

Over the weekend, Baltimore Sun magazine published excerpts from a Q&A with Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III. After five years of talking to bad guys with guns, features editor Sam Sessa got him to dish on some more light-hearted topics such as his favorite music and his solo hike on the Appalachian Trail. You can read that interview here .  But Sam and the outgoing commissioner also talked the war on drugs, "The Wire," and his decision to retire. Here's what was left on the cutting room floor: You were a drug cop. What do you think about the push to decriminalize marijuana?

I have something for you. In June 2010, I wrote in this space about a book, "The New Jim Crow," by Michelle Alexander, which I called a "troubling and profoundly necessary" work. Ms. Alexander promulgated an explosive argument. Namely, that the so-called "War on Drugs" amounts to a war on African-American men and, more to the point, to a racial caste system nearly as restrictive, oppressive and omnipresent as Jim Crow itself. This because, although white Americans are far and away the nation's biggest dealers and users of illegal drugs, African-Americans are far and away the ones most likely to be jailed for drug crimes.

The drug war is largely a war on people who smoke marijuana. In 2010, there were 853,839 marijuana arrests in the United States, almost 90 percent of them for simple possession. At a time when state and local governments are laying off police, firefighters and teachers, this country continues to spend enormous public resources criminalizing marijuana, even though the law enforcement model clearly isn't working. The U.S. has higher rates of marijuana use than the Netherlands, where marijuana is legally available.

This is an excerpt of a New York Times editorial that was published on Saturday:ALMOST 70 years after the failure of Prohibition, the much-trumpeted "war on drugs," begun more than a decade ago, has hugely misfired.The drug war was created in reaction to a wave of urban violence triggered by crack cocaine that ignited fears that crack addiction might spread widely. Surveys now show, however, that the use of crack, by about 600,000 people annually, has not changed in 10 years. Nor has the general level of illegal drug use.The best hope for controlling illicit drugs lies in treatment.

COLOMBIA'S uneasy truce with its drug lords points more urgently than ever to the need for the United States to find a domestic solution to the drug problem. The awesome influence of the narcotics cartels is spreading well beyond the initial coca-growing nuclei of Colombia, Peru and Bolivia across South America. Using Harvard Business School principles, the drug lords are expanding their enterprises to control everything from leaf production and paste processing to port shipments and financing.

Should juries vote "not guilty" on low-level marijuana charges to send a message about our country's insane marijuana arrest policy? Jury nullification is a constitutional doctrine that allows juries to acquit defendants who are technically guilty but who don't deserve punishment. As Paul Butler wrote recently in The New York Times, juries have the right and power to use jury nullification to protest unjust laws. Mr. Butler points out that nullification was credited with ending our country's disastrous alcohol Prohibition as more and more jurors refused to send their neighbors to jail for a law they didn't believe in. He says we need to do the same with today's marijuana arrests.

Five dollars? Really? To use your own money? Wow. Bank of America's decision to impose that fee for debit card use did not precipitate the Occupy Wall Street protests. But it does seem to embody much of what has driven thousands of people to the streets, first in the New York financial center and now in Boston, Los Angeles, Baltimore and other cities across the nation. The fee carried an odor of pecuniary pettiness not dispelled by BofA's claim that it was needed to recoup losses caused by a new federal regulation limiting the amount banks may charge retailers when you use a debit card.