Drug War

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.

Sergeant's complaints of racism snubbed by police departmentThis is in response to Kenneth Stockwell's letter stating that complaints by my husband, Sgt. Louis H. Hopson, of racism were a result of being disciplined ("Fired sergeant's troubles his own making, not racism," Jan. 6). Not so.In June 1992, my husband was promoted to sergeant and transferred to the Northeast District. He had to tolerate such racist behavior as someone leaving dog feces in an Afro American newspaper on his desk, his wife's picture having a racial epithet written across it, his children's pictures marked with stripes of zebras on them and using a numerical police term used for criminal suspects to refer to him. I could go on and on.My husband complained to the major of the district with no results.

SALISBURY -- Two weeks after police fired 14 shots into a car at a crowded McDonald's parking lot, anger remains palpable in black neighborhoods throughout this growing Eastern Shore city of 20,000.African-American residents say the wounding of two unarmed men who police believed were carrying a large quantity of crack cocaine is just the latest and worst example of an escalating drug war that has unfairly targeted them. Police say one suspect tried to run them down in his car; residents insist that the gunfire was unnecessary.

IN LATE May, when Thomas Constantine announced he was stepping down as director of the Drug Enforcement Administration on July 1, he pointed his finger at the largest threat in the continuing drug war: Mexico's drug gangs."

THE NINE nerveless Nellies currently ensconced on our Supreme Court have just committed the wimp-out act of the year. Two weeks ago, the pusillanimous justices refused to review a case out of Indiana, where overzealous school officials imposed mandatory drug testing as a condition for participating in extracurricular activities.Picture it now. Chess club members puffing on a joint while they decide to use a King's Gambit or a Sicilian Defense opening. Math club members smoking crack between discussions on the finer points of number theory.

LET'S SEE now. We've got jails bursting at the seams, most of the folks in them there for a drug-related crime, 34,000 heroin addicts in Baltimore alone, and still some folks in responsible positions worrying that a heroin maintenance program will send a "wrong message."On Wednesday, this paper reported that professors at the Johns Hopkins University were proposing a research study -- a research study, mind you -- on the feasibility of running a heroin maintenance program in Baltimore. Dr. Peter Beilenson, the health commissioner for the city, said he supported the idea and added ever so carefully and clearly that it would not be a cityprogram, that no city money would be used and that the study would be done by Hopkins.

THE CLINTON administration has just made a rash decision by more than doubling military aid to Colombia. While the aid ostensibly is going to fight the drug war, the Colombian government itself is implicated in the drug trade. And Colombia's military is one of the most brutal in the hemisphere.On Nov. 9, a Colombian air force cargo plane landed at FortLauderdale International Airport with 1,600 pounds of cocaine hidden aboard the aircraft.Gen. Jose Manuel Sandoval, Colombia's air force chief, resigned two days after U.S. officials discovered the cocaine-laden plane.

MIAMI -- Mexico's drug ''czar,'' Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, has been thrown into a maximum-security prison on charges that he has received money, real estate and other gifts from one of Mexico's most notorious drug cartels. Two of his aides also have been locked up, one suspected of a kidnapping and murder last September.The arrests come less than a month after the general came to Washington to get ''highly sensitive'' briefings about U.S. and Mexican plans to deal with the illicit drug cartels in Mexico, Colombia and other countries that are conduits of cocaine, marijuana, heroin and other drug shipments into the United States.

Divorce, death drive working womenFroma Harrop's June 29 article, ''Meanwhile, children are in storage'' was excellent.However, two additional items need to be included as reasons women stay in the work force: divorce and death.Both of these occur more often than we like to admit in families with children. Returning to the job market after an absence is difficult and, in most cases, salary is lower than if there were no interruption in a career. It is sad that many children grow up with both parents working.

Michael Jordan, take a pay cut. You too, Cal Ripken. The rest of you stars of major pro sports should consider doing the same.Part of the revenue used to pay professional athletes comes from television commercials of sporting events. Some of those commercials extol the celebratory and exhilarating effects of booze - mostly beer.It's time professional sports - team owners and players - told the booze companies they don't need their money. They - and the television networks - should tell the alcohol peddlers to take a hike, that no more commercials that raise boozing to the level of a cultural imperative will be accepted.

The 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.

MEXICO CITY -Asserting that the United States shares blame for Mexico's drug violence, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promised more equipment and support to help the country's war on traffickers Clinton said the United States has a duty to help because it is a major consumer of illicit drugs and a key supplier of weapons smuggled to the cartels. "We know very well that the drug traffickers are motivated by the demand for illegal drugs in the United States, that they are armed by the transport of weapons from the United States to Mexico," Clinton said Wednesday at a news conference with Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa.

Liquor law loopholes can put children at risk As a parent and a small-business owner, I'd like to commend The Baltimore Sun for its call to tighten underage drinking laws ("The forgotten dead," editorial, Jan. 18). As the statewide task force on drunken driving cited in the editorial reported, "A significant number of other states have taken action to reduce underage drinking through the deterrence of license suspension." It's time to act to protect our kids. The members of my association will stand with Gov. Martin O'Malley to get this done.

Costly drug war only fuels crime Drug policies modeled after alcohol prohibition have given rise to a youth-oriented black market for drugs ("Legalizing drugs: The money argument," Dec. 2). Illegal drug dealers don't ID young drug purchasers for age, but they do recruit minors immune to adult sentences into the drug trade. Throwing more money into the war on drugs is no solution. Attempts to limit the supply of illegal drugs while demand remains constant only increase the profitability of drug trafficking.

As if our military didn't have its hands full in Iraq and Afghanistan, the head of the Minuteman Project border security group, Jim Gilchrist, suggested in recent radio interviews that the U.S. give Mexico 12 months to corral its criminal drug cartels and rising violence, particularly in border towns, or deploy the Army to do the job. That's the Minutemen. Their remedies for the drug war next-door sound simplistic, but at least they're paying attention. While most of us north of the border have been absorbed with our presidential sweepstakes and other happenings, our southern neighbor has exploded into the full-scale drug violence previously associated with Colombia or Peru.

If you're called for jury duty, let the lawyers and judges know up front that you're not going to send nonviolent drug offenders to jail. That provocative piece of advice comes from the creators of my all-time favorite television show, The Wire, which ended its five-year run on HBO Sunday. "If asked to serve on a jury deliberating a violation of state or federal drug laws, we will vote to acquit, regardless of the evidence presented," the writers of the show declare in a recent Time magazine essay.

The City Council is to vote tonight to approve Frederick H. Bealefeld III as Baltimore's 36th police commissioner since 1850, and the first under the administration of Mayor Sheila Dixon. The 45-year-old began his law enforcement career a quarter-century ago in Baltimore and has worked under 10 commissioners. With Baltimore on the verge of recording 300 homicides in a year for the first time since 1999, Bealefeld faces a daunting challenge. Violent crime, drugs, gangs and witness intimidation threaten to undermine recent improvements in public safety that have sparked a resurgence in many neighborhoods.

Don't cede liberties for failed drug war Before we sacrifice any more civil liberties at the altar of the drug war, the members of the Supreme Court should take a cue from the nonsensical banner that inspired their recent decision limiting student free speech ("Bong Hits 4 Jesus") and ask themselves, what would Jesus do ("Whose free speech? Low point for high jinks," editorial, June 27)? Would Jesus persecute, incarcerate and deny forgiveness to nonviolent drug offenders? Zero tolerance is a decidedly un-Christian policy.

Welcome alternative to failed drug war Mayor Sheila Dixon's plan for fighting crime in the city is another positive initiative in her brief tenure as mayor ("Dixon outlines city crime-fighting plan," May 1). Targeting the most dangerous offenders, cracking down on illegal guns and strengthening community partnerships are all progressive steps. City Police Commissioner Leonard D. Hamm called the mayor's plan the right strategy because he believes the city streets are now manageable. But he cautions that our streets are "still violent."

The war on drugs hurts black men U.S. government statistics confirm that the drug war is being waged in a racist manner ("Young black men need help," Opinion Commentary, Dec. 24). According to the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, only 15 percent of the nation's drug users are black. But according to U.S. Justice Department figures, African-Americans account for 37 percent of those arrested for drug violations, more than 42 percent of those in federal prisons for drug violations and almost 60 percent of those in state prisons for drug felonies.