Rep. Frank Criticizes Punitive Drug Policies

It is impossible to keep drugs out of a free society like America, and the nation's public policy must change to reflect that reality, said Rep. Barney Frank '61 (D-Mass.) yesterday during a speech at the ARCO Forum.

Frank assailed the war on drugs, condemning the practice of mandatory minimum sentencing.

"I think America's drug policy is the single most mistaken public policy we have in America," he said. "The cure is indisputably worse than the disease."

He termed America's efforts to combat drug use and trade wasteful, intrusive and damaging to individuals and communities. He attacked conservatives for continuing the fight while abandoning programs like welfare for their inefficiency.

Frank also attacked the "harsh" penalties associated with the "victimless crime" of drug use and the "corrosive effect" on law enforcement, which, without a victim's assistance, often must resort to more intrusive measures.

According to Frank, immigrants convicted of low-level drug offenses face deportation, while seizure laws allow the police to take property of those suspected of being involved in drug transactions.

He said mandatory minimum sentencing has chilled the ability of judges to use their discretion to fashion appropriate, individually-sensitive decisions.

Frank also attacked the system of drug-enforcement as racially-biased, saying that the mandatory minimum guidelines had stiffer sentences for drugs often, according to Frank, used by minorities.

According to Frank, the illegality of medical marijuana use in many states represents an "extraordinary" imposition on the doctor's prerogative to prescribe appropriate medicine.

In the second part of his lecture, Frank proposed a series of possible solutions, including ending jail terms for use or small scale transactions of marijuana, legalizing medical marijuana, making the interdiction of drugs a lower priority for police and ending mandatory minimum sentences.

He said the ideal solution would be to end the war on drugs and use the money to create a drug treatment entitlement. But he did not come out in favor of unrestricted legalization, fearing the possibility that an abrupt legalization could further destabilize inner city communities.

Frank became the first openly gay U. S. representative when he announced his homosexuality in 1987. A 20-year veteran of the U.S. House of Representatives, he has been a fixture in Boston and Massachusetts politics since 1967.

Frank was introduced by Weld Professor of Law Charles R. Nesson '60, the director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, who termed him a "voice of reason" on issues including military spending, Israel and gay rights.

The event, organized by Dorothy S. Zinberg of the Kennedy School of Government honored her husband, Dr. Norman E. Zinberg, a pioneering researcher in the area of addiction and a founder of Harvard Medical School's Division on Addictions.

Dr. Howard Shaffer of the Division on Addictions, who delivered a brief dedication to Zinberg, termed Frank an "outspoken, honest and intellectually gifted politician."