Ed Haas

SC Lawmakers need to end the War on People who use drugs

December 13, 2004 -- The South Carolina Libertarian Party calls on Governor Sanford and all members of the South Carolina Senate and House of Representatives to end the insanity of locking up people for drug possession. Last year, South Carolina taxpayers paid more than 70 million dollars to lock up pot smokers and cocaine users in our state prisons. This amount does not include the additional costs associated with county jails, law enforcement, probation, prosecution, etc. Conservatively, in 2003, the costs to investigate, arrest, prosecute, incarcerate, parole, and monitor drug law violators in South Carolina was over 150 million dollars. This is the price that South Carolina taxpayers are paying to lock up non-violent, victimless crime, drug law offenders.

Fiscally speaking, this War on People who use drugs is a liberal agenda that lacks any meaningful results to justify its continuation. Why should fiscal conservatives be asked to spend $13,900.00 per inmate each year to lock up a cocaine addict or pot smoker anyhow? If an adult drug user is willing to take the inherent health risks associated with drug use, so be it. Tobacco users take the risk, and hundreds of thousands pay the ultimate price each year for their decision to use tobacco. In fact, tobacco kills 450,000 people a year while all illegal drugs combined kill less 20,000, so there is good reason why society should reconsider its policies regarding how to keep people from using drugs. A truly conservative drug policy would punish severely for selling drugs to minors, selling near public schools, and any public use. Other than that, if an adult's moral compass is so compromised that they think using drugs is a good thing, far be it for the taxpayer or the government to take money from meaningful programs so that we can save these people from themselves. The enormous money saved each year by letting drug users be drug users in the privacy of their own homes could be better used to educate our children so that they do not become drug users themselves.

Furthermore, the South Carolina Libertarian Party is deeply troubled by the number of minorities being arrested and sent to prison for drug possession or alleged intent to distribute. These are the cold, hard facts:

*  From 1986 to 1996, the number of whites imprisoned for drug offenses has doubled, while the number of blacks imprisoned for drug offenses has increased five-fold, and the number of young blacks imprisoned for drug offenses has increased six-fold.

*  In six states - Hawaii, Texas, South Carolina, West Virginia, North Carolina, and Maine - drug commitment rates for young whites actually declined between 1986 and 1996, while comparable black rates experienced two - to eight-fold increases.

*  In 2003, Human Rights Watch released a report that found that the war on drugs had been waged overwhelmingly against African Americans.

It's time for our Senators and Congressmen to accept that our drug laws are not healing any social ill whatsoever and are resulting in a disproportional number of African-American men being incarcerated. It is an endless cycle that has proved to be more detrimental to society than the drugs themselves. We have been fighting this War on People who use drugs for over 30 years. It's time for some rational, fiscal conservatism and compassionate, social libertarianism in South Carolina.