Drugs have won.
Poor blacks and Hispanics take the brunt of enforcement.
They're poor. Can't they have some heroin or marijuana to ease their misery?
Where's the harm? It's not like they're contributing members of society, serving a necessary function. It would be much cheaper to let them overdose and stop taking up space.
Toni Preckwinkle, newly elected head of the Cook County Board, has boldly declared that the war on drugs is lost and all that's being done is locking up poor folks for using or dealing. Cook County, which includes Chicago, is desperate to cut costs. One way to reduce expenses is to decrease the prison population.
As Ms. Preckwinkle points out, the junkies are non-violent offenders. How about if we just put them back on the streets, lay off the extra prison guards, and call it even?
The city's new police chief, Garry McCarthy, looks at the big picture of the drug war but he doesn't come down on the side of failure.
He knows that drug users commit crimes to get money to pay for the drugs. He also knows that guns are often blazing on city streets because rival gangs are fighting over lucrative turf where they make money selling drugs.
It's all about the money to Mr. McCarthy. That's where he would like to focus the anti-drug efforts. Locking up a small time user doesn't get at the root cause of the issue. Under his leadership, Chicago's police will be out in force to shut down the corners where drugs are sold, to aim for the head of the drug problem instead of taking easy whacks at the tail.
Any good general can tell you that waging war is a question of strategy. Maybe it's a battle against drugs that has been lost because those leading the charge didn't understand the enemy. There's still a chance that the war can be won.
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