Former Judge Speaks on Failed Drug WarAs both judge and district attorney, Stillwater attorney Bob Ward has been on the frontlines of the War on Drugs. In a November 2002 presentation at the Drug Policy Forum of Oklahoma, he spoke of the inequities of prohibition. "Society hates to admit it's wrong and will continue to elect candidates for office who claim they are tough on drugs--it's politically popular," he said. Ward believes the last thing people want to hear is the truth about prohibition laws. "Affluent people are not affected by prohibition, which is directed exclusively towards the poverty classes. It is racist in that the greatest number arrested are poor whites, blacks, and Latinos. Often their sentences are far greater than if they committed rape or murder. "If you had to live like many Oklahomans, you would want to escape your poverty through alcohol or dug intoxication, too. It costs twice as much to keep them in prison than they ever made in their live," he states.
He said drug prohibition has made us into a "snitch" society. People caught dealing or using can go free if they turn in another dealer or drug client. Police posing as drug dealers arrange by phone to sell drugs at a specific time and site. When drug clients arrive they are arrested and jailed. Some have their driver's license suspended. In general their lives are shattered. Ward said he had nothing against police officers, but "the system rewards them for arrests. It is far easier to arrest drug users than to arrest someone for committing a real crime." He believes that money rules the justice system. "The only way to get justice is to go to trial, but the cost makes justice impossible for poor people. If the OSU fraternities and sororities were raided, a special legislative session would be called and all drug laws rescinded. Leading citizens would not permit the ruination of their children's lives with a drug felony record," he said. (Interestingly enough, Ward believes interference with wealthy interests led to legalization of alcohol in 1959 after raids on alcohol shifted from the sticks to the country clubs.)
Ward claimed 46% of people in the penal system are nonviolent drug offenders and that 13 are violent, yet drug offenders, irrationally, are more severely punished." He talked about his own experience with the most addictive drug of all, nicotine. He started smoking because all the heroes of the day smoked. He got into smoking the same way kids get into drugs--from peer pressure, the desire to fit in, to feel grown up. To criminalize kids whose risk taking behavior enhances their status among peers and who know nothing about the dangers of addiction is lunacy, he said. Nicotine kills over 400,000 people a year, while the total of deaths per year for all forms of illegal drugs is around 5,000. From a pharmacological standpoint marijuana cannot kill. It is never lethal. The only way it can kill is if its users get into a shootout with police. He asked the question:"Why is the government spending billions on building prisons and incarceration in an unsuccessful attempt to prohibit the use of a few drugs that are far less deadly than nicotine or alcohol?" Prisons, he said, are the greatest make-work program going. Oklahoma spends 90 million dollars per year to incarcerate drug prisoners. The penalties for using drugs are draconian. You can shoot two guys and rape three women and get less punishment than for a drug offense."
(The Drug Policy Forum of Oklahoma meets on the second Wednesday of each month at 7 PM, at the Strode Hospitality Center, 7th and Duck, downtown Stillwater.)
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