Local News in Brief : Costa Mesa : Van de Kamp Opposes Drug Legalization

State Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp warned Tuesday that legalizing drugs in any fashion would be an “unspeakable tragedy,” akin to raising “the white flag of surrender” to drug dealers.

Speaking in Costa Mesa to a convention of California district attorneys, Van de Kamp said the growing national debate over legalization of such drugs as marijuana and cocaine is “disturbing” because it comes at a time when police and lawmakers have strengthened drug enforcement efforts in the last year through stiffer penalties and increased spending for undercover drug operations.

The attorney general said legalizing drugs would simply lead to greater drug abuse, similar to what happened in England in the early 1970s after the British legalized heroin. He told about 150 people gathered for a four-day conference of the California District Attorneys Assn. that the black market in drug trafficking would flourish rather than decline if drugs were widely available at the “corner drugstore.”

Van de Kamp said it requires a “considerable leap of faith” to believe that those engaged in drug trafficking would somehow be converted to “more peaceful and productive pastimes” if drugs were legalized.

After his address, Van de Kamp told reporters that he had sought Tuesday’s speaking engagement “to alert the D.A.s about the strong intellectual debate” now unfolding on the issue of drug legalization. “We are beginning to win this war, and it’s no time to give the gains we’ve made back.”