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Saturday, Oct 12, 2002
Dee Eee Ayyy
October 11, 2002
Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2002 18:54:55 -0700
To: letters@sjmercury.com, letters@washpost.com
Subject: response to Asa Hutchinson Op Ed
In Friday's Mercury News [originally in the October 9 Washinton Post] Asa Hutchinson, director of the Drug Enforcement Administration, compares drug policies and results in the US and Europe. Using dysfunctional logic, he concludes that they should copy us. I've read about the Lambreth pilot project in the British press, and came away with a much different impression. But I must admit I have not taken "a tour" through South London as Mr. Hutchinson has. However, I have spent a few weeks in the Netherlands, and can contrast their policies and results with those of New Orleans.
I make annual treks to Amsterdam and New Orleans for the International Broadcast Convention and the Heritage Jazz Festival, respectively. Wherever I travel I make an effort to immerse myself in the local way of life, and obtain more than a tourist's impression. Mr. Hutchinson refers to the over-the-counter sale of marijuana in Amsterdam's red-light district. If that is the depth of his understanding, he's just another ignorant tourist. Asa, dude, don't be buying spliffs in the red-light district! You'll be trampled by drunken tourists, served bad food, and proffered mediocre merchandise.
To obtain a more realistic view of the Dutch marijuana tolerance policy, Mr. Hutchinson should spend some time where the Dutch people actually live. Ride a bicycle over to the quiet neighborhood near the Vondelpark, or hop a train to the nearby city of Haarlem. "Coffee shops" are licensed to sell small quantities of soft drugs, i.e. marijuana and hashish, and are indistinguishable from neighborhood bars. There is no drama, no running gun battles, and scant profit motive. A coffee shop is just another corner business, like a laundry or sandwich shop. And they appear to take in more revenue from Red Bull and Heineken than from cannabis.
The drug trade in New Orleans is a much darker affair. Random deaths are so commonplace that they rarely receive much notice. During a recent stay I counted at least one violent death each day in the pages of the Times-Picayune. Young men are killing each other at a dreadful rate over what the business world might call "franchise territories." But many of the dead are innocents caught in the cross-fire.
In contrast to the Netherlands, the illegality of drugs in the US creates high retail prices, and a huge profit motive for the franchise holders. One such franchise holder is a man known as Stank. He worked the corner of Broad and Dumaine, and specialized in crack. I was never formally introduced to Stank, but we eyed each other from front porches on opposite sides of Dumaine. In Asa Hutchinson's America, there are two ways to take down Stank. Either he gets gunned downed by someone more ruthless, or he is taken down by the police. Stank was busted, and will be gone for a while. But whether incarcerated or assassinated, he will simply be replaced by the next minor drug lord.
Calvinism leads the Dutch to be both moralists and pragmatists. The Dutch way to take down guys like Stank is to undercut their profit. Why buy a dime bag from Stank for 15 minutes of happiness, when that same ten bucks can procure a week's supply of pot at the corner shop? There will always be people looking for a way to get a buzz, so why not steer them toward soft drugs like alcohol and marijuana? To be frank, the antics of stoners are far more innocuous -- and tolerable -- than the antics of drunks.
When I study Mr. Hutchinson's comparison of the European and US approaches, I discern a lack of critical thinking and a rigid morality that deny a pragmatic search for the common good. He fails to understand the difference between soft drugs and hard drugs, lumping pot smoking into the same category with intravenous injection of heroin. He also fails to account for the fact that the economics of prohibition create a powerful incentive for crime. The biggest fans -- and benefactors -- of prohibition are guys like Capone and Stank.