European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 31, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 columns the stars and stripes Tom Wicker shortsighted drug Czar crippling Justice system in denouncing those who favor legalization of drugs William Bennett also ripped into intellectuals particularly Liberal intellectuals for criticizing his Law enforcement approach to the so called War on drugs. The opposition of these intellectuals the Bush administration s blustery drug Czar wrote recently in the Washington times was partly rooted in a general hostility to Law enforcement and Crimi Nal  what nonsense. No one is against Law enforcement except criminals and even Bennett does not yet accuse intellectuals of being criminals. In fact few Are doing More to cripple the criminal Justice system than the drug Czar himself with a program focused narrowly on imprisoning drug users producers Sellers possessors Kingpins and Street addicts alike. Don t take my word for it. Listen to Isaac Fulwood chief of police in Washington where Bennett promises a special Effort Bennett s approach is absolutely wrong. Don t Send me More police. Make sure that we be got a treatment bed for every person that needs a treat ment  Fulwood added in an interview with the Washington Post let s Start educating our kids at pre kindergarten with a massive educational program about sub stance  Bennett is fixed instead on imprison ing people an approach Fulwood said was missing the  he knows his police arrested 42,000 people in Washington in 1988 with Little effect on the crime rate or the drug problem. Or consider North Carolina where in 1987 the general Assembly to avoid Federal court sanctions imposed a Cap of 17,460 inmates in state prisons. When the Cap is exceeded for 15 consecutive Days inmates must be released George will to reduce the prison population. The Cap coincided with the nation wide Rise in drug related imprisonment. One result As reported by the Charlotte observer on dec. 11 through novem Ber the North Carolina parole commis Sion had released nearly 17,000 inmates As compared with Only 7,983 in 1985. In 1988, moreover 18.3 percent of those released violated parole against Only 9.9 percent in 1986. Drug offenders Are a major part of the problem but arc getting off lighter. Drug felons had served 43 percent of their sentences before parole in 1985 this year drug felons were being released after serving an average of Only 31 per cent of their sentences. Build More prisons North Carolina allotted $150 million for that purpose earlier this year but the observer reported that that will provide Only the constitutionally required additional space for the current prison population. Nor is this Only one state s problem. By the estimate of the National coun cil on crime and delinquency the War on drugs will overwhelm the states Pris on systems within five Yean driving an average annual 13 percent growth rate imprison populations resulting in an Euti mated additional 460,000 inmates for a total of 1.13 million by 1994. At an average annual cent of $25,000 per inmate per year and a construction Cost of $50,000 per cell the states will need $35 billion for prisons in the next half decade. President Bush and Bennett have called on the states to put up $5 billion to $10 billion for building new prisons. They badly underestimated the real Cost their War will impose on the states and made no offer to provide any of the Money. As in North Carolina the War on drugs not Only increases prison populations it also runs up the rate of parole violations. From 1970 to 1986, drug sales and Possession caused about 10 percent of state prison admissions. In most states the a cd found arrests in such cases now represent 20 to 35 percent of prison sentences in Flor Ida for example imprisonment for drug crimes Rose from 15 percent of the total in 1985 to 35 percent at the end of 1988. From 1977 to 1987, moreover department of Justice data indicate a 284 percent increase in the number of parole violators returned to prison. About one of every three people now admitted to a state prison the a cd estimates is a parole violator. Bennett is not responsible for these past increases. But he Well might be asked who really threatens effective criminal Justice in America unnamed intellectual who question the Efficacy of imprisoning so Many drug offenders or a so called drug Czar whose shortsighted War will further overcrowd and overwhelm state prisons Tow Nofu Yort to Law inn 8n arguments for legalizing drugs Are not solid. _  i  �.,._ a hmiil4 Mieth a 14rm/ Anft . The dynamics of Public opinion lag behind events so the drug crisis probably peaked before the nation s anxiety did. And now when drug use is de creasing Calls for surrender legalization arc in creasing. Alcohol does much More damage illness Acci dents violence lost productivity premature death than cocaine and heroin combined. Yet Many advocates of drug legalization favor this is economist Mil ton Friedman s formulation treating drugs exactly the same Way you treat  alcohol is much less addictive than heroin or co Caine and besides has Long been a pervasive rooted social phenomenon in a Way that cocaine need not become. Surely it is perverse to argue for decriminalizing one drug on the grounds that it currently docs less damage than a drug that is Legal. Friedman argues that criminalization is not working that it costs society More than legalization would and that government has no right to interfere with free choices that do not interfere with the free choices of others. Thus Friedman is logically committed to unleashing existing drugs on society and As Many designer drugs As perverse chemists concoct in the future. What of Friedman s Bald assertion that the fight against drugs is not working he s wrong. Drug use i declining from peaks reached in this decade. And the number of heroin addicts is approximately the same As it was in 1972 when defeatists warned of exponential growth an epidemic and when Friedman first urged legalization. Containment of drugs is indeed costly. So has been the containment of communism costly but a bargain. If drugs arc legalized asks James q. Wilson in what proportion of Auto fatalities would the state police report that the Driver was nodding off on heroin or recklessly driving on a Coke High in what proportion of spouse assault and child abuse cases would the local police report that crack was involved in what proportion of Industrial accidents would safety investigators report that the forklift or Drill press oper Ator was in a drug induced stupor or frenzy legalize cars urge tax drug sales and use the billions to provide treatment on demand. But Wilson argues that demand for treatment often is a result of judicial coercion and society could not compel treatment for consumption of a Legal commodity. Wilson makes these and other decisive Points in a dazzling essay coming Jan. 20 in the february Issue of commentary. Wilson proves that Friedman the High priest of Market capitalism is talking rot about markets and Price mechanisms. If Friedman had been heeded in 1972, the Price of heroin would have fallen 95 percent. Friedman concedes Only that lower drug prices might increase demand. But then again he thinks demand for cheap Legal drugs might Noi increase because drugs would lose the Appeal of being forbidden fruit. Friedman really thinks that Appeal and push ers create demand. But As Wilson says mends not pushers recruit addicts. Pushers dislike dealing with non addicts because they might be undercover police. Wilson says most veterans who acquired a habit in the drug bazaars of Vietnam kicked it when they came Home. At Home the criminal Law made continuing the habit involve asking one s personal and professional life and one s bodily safety by making an illegal con tact with a disreputable dealer in a threatening neigh boyhood to buy a possibly contaminated drug. Does Friedman think demand would not Row if the people making and Selling aspirins were making and Selling heroin and cocaine legalization would cause drug prices to crash then taxation would raise them. How far government calculating rates of consumption at various tax Levels would decide the right amount of addiction. If government priced drugs above what criminals could profitably sell them for there would be two markets and there would be no Laws suppressing demand by stigmatizing use. Legalizes say Young people would be excluded from the free Market for drugs. Of and  course no Young people obtain cigarettes or alcohol when asked about advertising Legal drugs Friedman flinches. He favors prohibiting advertising of drugs in newspapers or on television because people must see such advertising whether they choose to see it or not. What rubbish. Friedman is caught.  its to inform and influence choices. If drug use Isa private Choice concerning which society should be per missive drug Sellers should be free to compete for Friedman s Mon maniacal worship of free Choice poverty of libertarianism. The anti political and Ami social doctrine of severe individualism. As Wilson says in the Core of his essay no society a Mere aggregation of independently formed individuals. Society without which human character is inconceivable and by which character is formed depends on and Emath. Ethis also does today interest in legalization is increasing As drug abuse become increasingly concentrated among poor minorities. That is proof that Many privileged people Are failing to measure up to minimal standards of responsibility and empathy. Of out Wau Englon poll writ of up