Questions from Alex Cuellar, KKOB-AM 770

CUELLAR: In the discussions about legalizing drugs, we are bombarded with words from many studies that seem to support both sides of this argument. Both of you in your opening statements have quoted some of those studies. Since we all know that statistics can be manipulated, and survey questions can be crafted in a way to achieve the desired results, how can we know whom to believe in order to form an informed opinion on this issue?

[images: CBS TV]

ROMERO: First of all, I think people need to use their commons sense. Does anyone believe that under the governor's legalization model, under this "Brave New World" of drug legalization, where marijuana and heroin are both available to the public, that drug addiction is actually going to go down? That has not been the experience in the countries that have tried it.

[images: CBS TV]

ROMERO: (cont) For example, in the Netherlands, drug addiction are up. The [name unknown] institute, which is financed by the Dutch government, recently came out with a study that showed they have about 25,000 heroin addicts. Now, heroin has never been legal in the Netherlands, yet they have triple the number of addicts they had when they started. Critics of the government say that the number is closer to 35,000.

If you take a look at England, when they experimented with prescribing heroin by doctors to heroin addicts in the 1950s, they found in the space of about 10 years they had a 30-fold increase in the number of addicts. Now, this is hardly what I would call drug addiction going down.

What I say is that when people listen to these statistics, use your own common sense and your own common experience. Are drug addictions going to go down? No. Is crime going to go down? No. Every place that has done this, they have experienced a rise in crime, and that includes our country.

JOHNSON: Well, that's absolute hogwash! That is why I think the media has an obligation actually to come out with what is happening in Holland.

[images: CBS TV]

JOHNSON: (cont) What you need to understand is that the United States has a high crime rate; they have high drug use. Down here you've got Holland. They have a low crime rate and low drug use (see image to right). Within that context, you have aberations. The district attorney talks about those aberations. High crime rate and high drug usage in the United States. Low crime rate and low drug usage in the Netherlands. [images: CBS TV]

Let's just assume for a minute that this does increase drug usage, just for a minute, if it does let me get to a basic question and this is, "Should a person, who arguably does no harm to anyone than themselves, does this person need to be arrested and locked up for that crime?"

And again, the district attorney continues to talk about the fact that we are not incarcerating users. Well, the fact is that there are many that have multiple offenses, multiple convictions, and the sellers of very small amounts of drugs, who are in jail and they are filling up our jails. Does anybody want to return to the prohibition of the 1920s? I think we have been through this with alcohol and we reliving it with our Drug War today. Clearly, if there is one thing you come away from, it would be reduced crime because there would not be the incentive to go out and get money for drugs.