Last night, the newly founded Students for Sensible Drug Policy sponsored a debate called "Just Say Know: What is drug abuse and how can we prevent it?" The debate featured Deborah Small of the Lindesmith Center for drug policy reform and Peter Giese, the Enfield Chief of Police.
Small clarified that her organization is not trying to legalize any drugs, pointing out that instead that "there are a variety of options between prohibition and outright legalization." Her organization is more aimed toward the decriminalization of marijuana and looking at drug use as a public health issue as opposed to a criminal issue.
While Small looked at the problem from a global economic and public health perspective, Giese took a more local, anecdotal approach. Giese initiated the debate facing the 30 person audience: "I am the one who has to tell the parents 'your child has taken a substance, your child is in a coma, your child will never be the same.'"
Conversely, Small looked at the problems with drugs and drug policies across America and internationally. "The problem with an honest drug policy debate in the United States is that anyone who has a problem with the current policy is deemed a 'legalizer,'" Small said.
Both Small and Giese recognized the inefficacy in dealing with the drug problems purely through law enforcement. "We cannot arrest our way out of the problem" said Giese.
Small emphasized this by analyzing the drug problem from an economic standpoint. Looking at law enforcement as a solution is only looking at half of the issue. "If we were serious, we'd look at the demand for drugs as well. Drugs are a commodity, as long as there's a demand, there will be a supplier."
Small cited congress as spending $1.3 billion trying to limit the drug suppliers in South America, but she pointed out that there is little evidence to prove that there has been any change in the amount of drugs reaching users in the United States. "As long as there's a demand, there will be a supplier. ... The amount of drugs produced in Columbia will more than supply the users in the United States."
She said that most of the drug dealers can afford to lose some of their product in drug seizures because the production cost of the drugs is so much less than the street value.
To this end, both Small and Giese called the term "war on drugs" a misnomer. "You can't wage a war against drugs any more than you can wage a war against tables or chairs. Drugs are merely a commodity," Small said. She also found fault with the term because, "it is not a war, theoretically, it is a crusade. In war, there are benchmarks to see if you are winning. In a crusade, it is a moral issue, and it's just important that you are fighting."
