Angels Camp, CA….Letter written by Tom Tryon to the Citizens of Calaveras County in the summer of 1985: In recent weeks I have been asked by many of my constituents to respond to statements I have made as a County Supervisor regarding the legalization of illicit drugs. Let me state emphatically I am not in favor of drug usage. I am only interested in trying to minimize the human tragedy that exists within our current policies. If we look at the historical reasons for placing many of the drugs in an illegal classification, the reasons are racial bigotry against particular ethnic minorities. Heroin laws were directed against the Chinese; marijuana laws against the Mexicans in the Southwest; and cocaine laws against Blacks in the South. These drugs were their drugs of cultural preference over the alcohol preferred by the white majority. The government assumed a very important role with the passage of the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914. The Chief of Narcotics Enforcement was Harry Anslinger who constantly lobbied for a more activist government role, for inclusion of additional drugs to the list of illegal drugs, and for the expansion of his department. Unfortunately, he achieved unlimited success and with that success the drug problem has grown to epidemic proportions.

Let us step back for a moment and discuss the moral issues as they relate to our current government policies. When an individual decides to purchase a drug and another wishes to sell the drug and there is no force or fraud involved, a moral crime has not been committed. No individual rights between the parties themselves or between the parties involved and other outside parties have been violated. The above statement is particularly true if one accepts the axiom of self-ownership; the axiom upon which any concept of freedom or liberty must necessarily be founded. Certainly there is no moral difference between the grower (producer), the marketer (pusher), or the consumer (drug user). No one of these three can survive without the other two. Our current government policies are oriented to concentrate the attack on the first two groups: the grower and the pusher. We shall not, however, repeal the laws of economics; as long as a profitable demand exists, someone will produce and sell the drug. The drug problem will only be solved by addressing the demand side of the equation. We must develop policies which will diminish demand. One must remember that competition in illegal markets is based on violence, not consumer satisfaction. I would further submit that this moral dilemma is undermining our entire system of justice. A system of justice cannot help but be significantly negatively impacted when such a moral void exists.

Let us now take a pragmatic look at the results of our current policies. The major beneficiaries of our current policies are organized crime and law enforcement agencies – organized crime, since they reap the benefits of exorbitant profits, and law enforcement agencies, since the illegality of the drug make not only criminals of the grower, marketer and user, but creates many related crimes due to high prices, money made available to fund organized crime efforts in other areas, and the breakdown of moral restraint. I make this statement with no malice toward law enforcement. They are responsible for enforcing the laws, not making the laws. Who today believes that the answer to the drug problem is to spend more money to build more jails to arrest more people; or, conversely, that we would not have a drug problem today if only earlier we had spent more money to build more jails to arrest more people. In our country today there are approximately 32 million marijuana users, 5 million heroin users, 5 million cocaine users, and 5 million other illicit drug users. We couldn’t build enough jails even if we had the money. Currently we spend well over a billion dollars annually to interdict drugs at our borders with less than a ten percent success rate. The foreign results are equally catastrophic. Certain foreign countries, particularly in Latin and South America, e.g. Colombia, are being controlled by drug dealers as a consequence of our drug policies. As we look at the constantly escalating drug war, we find we are constantly escalating the war in response to the negative consequences of the war itself. The drug war has been a self-perpetuating effort in human destruction. Recently, a high government official of the Johnson administration, in reference to the Vietnam War, made the statement that on reflection the administration made a big mistake in not creating a war hysteria. That statement ruined my entire day. Yet, that is exactly what the government has created as concerns the war on drugs; a war hysteria which prevents a rational alternative from being pursued. The legalization of drugs to the extent alcohol is legalized and controlled is a rational alternative. Legalization as currently enjoyed by alcohol, would remove the organized crime element, the crimes associated with high prices and the breakdown of moral restraint (since one is already a criminal, there is less moral restraint not to commit other crimes), would remove the pushers from campuses, would dramatically reduce the tax burden associated with all crimes related to our present policies, would eliminate the largest cause of corruption in our government, would not make criminals of basically honest and peaceful people, and, by far most importantly, would diminish the harmful effects of drugs to the user himself. A substantial if not majority of the harmful effects of using illegal drugs comes from three sources; contaminants within the drugs, not knowing the purity of the drugs and thereby overdosing, and being caught and placed in jail.

We tried our great experiment known as Prohibition to control our drug of preference. The experiment failed for very sound and fundamental reasons, for the same sound and fundamental reasons the drug war has failed. During Prohibition, alcohol consumption actually increased. I believe the drug war experiment has lasted so long due to drugs being a preference of mostly young people, as opposed to alcohol being the drug of preference across the age spectrum, and most young people don’t vote. We have tried oppression, coercion, and intimidation as a solution to the drug problem, and the problem only grows. We shall not solve what is basically a health and personal mores problem through the police department. We must resort to an education and health policy which respects the integrity of the individual. This policy must focus on two objectives; minimize the inclination of people to want to use drugs, and, if drugs are used, to minimize the harmful health effects.

There shall always be a “generation gap” between the young citizens and the older citizens. We must realize the young people tend to test conventional wisdoms and, as such, when they walk through the garden, they are often inclined to taste the forbidden fruits, whether the fruits be alcohol, tobacco, drugs or sex. Let’s not purposely kill them or permanently harm them, or make criminals of them, but rather assist them in becoming productive, caring human beings.

Sincerely,
Tom Tryon, Supervisor District 4

“On the plains of hesitation
Bleach the bones of countless millions
Who, at the dawn of victory
Sat down to rest,
And, resting, died.”

It has been a long battle —Please vote NO on MEASURE B!