Judge: Drug Prohibition and Not the Drugs Themselves the Bigger Problem

Cookie Jill posting at Skippy brings us this about a brave Connecticut judge:

wonder if the judge will have a knock-knock-knock on his door in the middle of the night.

with remarks to a civic group in enfield recently, superior court judge howard scheinblum engaged in what is seldom forgiven in connecticut's public life: candor.

the judge asserted what can neither be denied nor acknowledged -- that public policy on drugs doesn't work. speaking from his 15 years of experience on the bench, scheinblum estimated 90 percent of criminal cases in connecticut are connected in some way to the pursuit of illegal drugs, and he asserted that society would be far better off to let users of such drugs obtain them by prescription and to be charged for them according to their ability to pay.

that is, the judge said, drugs are not the problem, not the cause of thievery, robbery, and violence; drug prohibition is.

if now-illegal drugs were available to addicts by prescription, many addicts would waste their lives away, but at least they wouldn't be robbing and killing others for money for drugs, and drug dealers would not be killing others over drug sales territory. most violent crime would disappear.

sensible as this might seem -- after all, despite drug criminalization, illegal drugs are
more prevalent than ever; the legal drugs, alcohol and tobacco, claim so many more lives than illegal drugs; and who really cares how people waste their lives as long as they don't hurt others?-- the judge said any departure from futile drug policy would be blocked by "vested interests." for if drug prohibition crime ended, the judge said, connecticut wouldn't need as many police, courts, prisons, drug programs and so forth. - norwichbulletin.com

some wars are meant to be simply waged...not won.

Yes, indeedy.