http://www.buffalonews.com/opinion/anothervoice/story/325226.html
By Peter Christ
Updated: 04/17/08 6:38 AM
I commend the work of all the agencies involved in the March 26 drug
bust in Erie and Niagara counties. I=92m a retired police captain from
the Town of Tonawanda, and I understand the difficulty of the job they
have to do. But I do have one question: Why do we put our police
officers in this position?
Look at the manpower used in this drug bust. The agencies used 100
officers to track down 36 suspects. They also say that at 4 a.m. they
used 300 officers, so that=92s using 8.3 officers per arrest. There=92s
nothing wrong with that except that while those 300 officers are doing
that, what other jobs aren=92t being done? You=92ve got 300 of them pulled
off the streets for a day.
Also, these arrests were preceded by an expensive and lengthy
investigation. What will be the result of all this hard work, money
and time spent? Will we have fewer drugs in our community? No. Will it
be harder for people to get drugs? No. Will it keep drugs out of the
schools? No.
Nancy Cote, of Buffalo=92s office of the Drug Enforcement
Administration, was careful to re****t that, =93There [were] no
incidents. Nobody hurt. No dogs killed.=94 The whole idea I got from
this article is that this drug bust was a kinder, gentler drug bust.
Here=92s an idea for a kinder, gentler drug bust: How about simply not
arresting people for doing drugs? I=92m not talking about not arresting
criminals. I=92m talking about why we criminalize behavior that simply
isn=92t criminal.
If you=92re an alcoholic in this society today, and you don=92t drink and
drive, and you don=92t hurt other people or their property, what do we
do to you? Nothing.
If you=92re an alcoholic in this society today, what do we do for you?
Most people respond nothing, but that=92s not true. We have treatment on
demand for the alcoholic. There=92s no waiting list for Alcoholics
Anonymous; anyone who wants to come in gets treatment.
Another thing we do for alcoholics is guarantee to them and the casual
alcohol user, as much we=92re able, a purity of product. And we provide
them, as much as we can, with a safe place to purchase and use that
drug.
But when we catch heroin addicts using heroin, we arrest them. We=92ve
cut back on treatment for drug addicts to build prisons, so we don=92t
have treatment on demand for the heroin addict. And as far as purity
of product and a safe place to buy or use that drug, it=92s ridiculous.
We all know what we get in an underground marketplace.
We claim that we=92re trying to help drug addicts. But if we really want
to help drug addicts, let=92s help them like we=92re helping alcoholics.
The only way to have a kinder and gentler approach to dealing with our
drug problems is to have a regulated and controlled marketplace. And
the only way you can control and regulate the marketplace is to
legalize the drugs. All of them.
=A9 2008 The Buffalo News.
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