George Shultz on Legalizing Drugs

Superior Court Judge Terry Smerling’s column (“Punishment Won’t Dent the Drug Crime Rate,” California Commentary, Nov. 13) on drug crime is a curious beast. Smerling begins by blasting the President’s anti-drug effort for subordinating “critical analysis and pragmatism” to “conventional political wisdom.” According to Judge Smerling, the Administration seeks a “rigid law-and-order approach.” He then goes on to recommend intensive probation and other alternatives to conventional incarceration and says “we must demand that our leaders adopt a more balanced and utilitarian approach. . . .”

Smerling’s enthusiasm for his views has overrun his research. The President’s National Drug Control Strategy, which is available in all Government Printing Office bookstores, calls for many of the same measures Smerling so stridently espouses.

For example, the strategy calls for expansion of the criminal justice system, but specifically notes: “Expansion does not merely mean more police or more prisons. . . .” The President’s strategy voices the same lament as Smerling: “In many jurisdictions, the choice of criminal sanctions is between prison or nothing at all.”

Furthermore, the President’s strategy specifically suggests:

- Halfway houses and strictly supervised addiction recovery programs.

- House arrest programs that keep an offender incapacitated at his own expense.

- Stiff fines and property forfeiture for “casual” users who maintain a job and steady income.

Likewise, Judge Smerling is mirroring the President’s strategy when he endorses “judicial coercion” to get addicts into treatment.

The general tone of Judge Smerling’s column suggests that the President has no plans which do not involve the criminal justice system. Wrong again; the National Drug Control Strategy calls for accelerated education, prevention and treatment efforts, including a first-year increase of over 50% in federal funds devoted to treatment.

In sum, Judge Smerling would seem to have some very good ideas. Sadly, he is unaware that many are already national policy.

DONALD R. HAMILTON, Director of Public Affairs, Office of National Drug Control Policy Washington, D.C.