Editorial: Politicians mixing up incarceration priorities

With anti-terror efforts taking precedence over the American war on drugs, one would think since less resources are available, they would be focused on the deadliest, most hard-core drugs, such as cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine.

Instead, though the United States spends an estimated $35 billion every year on the drug war, the easing of the crack epidemic has led to a major increase in arrests and prosecutions for, of all things, marijuana possession.

The New York Times reports 80 percent of the increase in drug arrests from 1990 to 2000 resulted from marijuana-related cases. They now make up just less than half of all drug arrests. Marijuana use has remained unchanged over this period.

Without taking on the issue of marijuana's illegality, it seems at least somewhat obvious that marijuana use is less detrimental to society than, for example, the economic corrosion and violence associated with the Midwestern meth epidemic.

It doesn't take a vivid imagination to think up more appropriate ways to use the billions of tax dollars spent arresting, prosecuting and jailing marijuana offenders - especially as tens of millions of Americans lack health insurance, and Veteran Affairs hospitals face budget cuts in a time of war.

The report, based on statistics from The Sentencing Project, estimates that one-quarter of people in state prisons are designated "low-level" offenders. And though African-Americans make up less than 15 percent of marijuana users, they account for around 30 percent of marijuana-related arrests.

The level of absurdity associated with a war on marijuana was sublimely illustrated by the arrest of actor Tommy Chong two years ago. Drug Enforcement agents arrested him at a time when John Ashcroft's Justice Department had failed to successfully prosecute a single terror-related case despite hundreds of arrests and investigations.

Now might be a good time to decide whether our priorities lie in hunting down a 1970s actor in suburban Los Angeles or wanted terrorists in Afghan caves.

Chris Narkun

Opinion editor