Freedom Lawyers of America

PRESS RELEASE

ABC NEWS SPECIAL TO AIR JULY 30 AT 10 PM EST ON ABC

WAR ON DRUGS, A WAR ON OURSELVES WITH JOHN STOSSEL

How many wars can America fight? Now that we're at war against
terrorism, can we afford to also fight a drug war in Afghanistan,
Colombia, and against millions of our own people? Is it wise to fight on
two fronts? Should drugs be legalized? John Stossel asks whether some of
the world's biggest problems stem not from the drugs themselves, but
from the prohibition of drugs, in an ABC News special, "War on Drugs, A
War on Ourselves with John Stossel." Stossel interviews drug sellers and
users, farmers in Colombia, and government officials, in the new
special, which airs on TUESDAY, JULY 30 (10:00-11:00 p.m., ET), on the
ABC Television Network.

We know the awful things drug abuse does. We've seen the despair, the
sunken face of the junkie, and the women who prostitute themselves for
one more fix. But do we know the terrible things drug prohibition does?
- The teens tempted into the underworld by flashy drug dealers, the cops
corrupted by drug money, and the crime caused when commerce is driven
into a black market, so buyers and sellers dealers fight over drugs that
are literally worth their weight in gold? These are the unintended
consequences of drug prohibition. Stossel visits the South Bronx, where
residents live with these "unintended consequences."

More people in America are calling for radical solutions. Stossel talks
to a Bronx priest who argues that life would be better if drugs were
legal, "Legal means control," says Father Joseph Kane. "Illegal means
the bad guys have control." California Judge James Gray agrees, "hold
people accountable for what they do, not for what they put into their
bodies," he says. The head of the DEA, Asa Hutchinson, disagrees,
calling these arguments "giving in."

Stossel also reports from Colombia, South America, the country that
produces most of America's cocaine and heroin, and talks with those who
farm coca plants, and whose farms have been dive-bombed by planes
spraying American herbicides. So far the spraying has not been
effective. The CIA says Colombian coca production is up 25%. In
addition, the vast profits created by drug prohibition are tearing
Colombia apart. Today, murder is common, and Colombia is the country
where people are most likely to be kidnapped. There have already been 15
attempts on the life of Colombia's next president; he's decided to stay
in Europe until his inauguration next month.

No government in the world has found a way to eliminate the drug
problem; but some countries claim to have found success on some levels.
Stossel takes a first-hand look at alternatives from across the globe -
including the "Dutch experiment" which separated "hard" and "soft" drugs
25 years ago, by legalizing the sale of marijuana in licensed "coffee
shops". Teen marijuana use did rise after smoking was legalized, but a
few years later it dropped, and today fewer Dutch teens use marijuana
than American teens.

Holland's liberalization is not the exception anymore. Today police in
most of Europe ignore marijuana use. In Spain, Italy and Luxembourg,
they've decriminalized most drug use, and in Portugal recently, all drug
use. Switzerland and a few other countries in Europe are now prescribing
heroin to some addicts, and many countries in Europe don't treat use of
hard drugs as a crime. Stossel visits a Rotterdam priest who allows
addicts not only to smoke and inject heroin in "user rooms" in the
church basement, but also to buy and sell drugs there. Rotterdam's local
police superintendent says the problem is "bigger" when the police
interfere.