ABSTRACT: Kurt Schmoke, the black mayor of Baltimore, was a public magistrate for seven years, and condemned thousands of those accused of drug crimes. Precisely because of this experience, he has undertaken a very difficult campaign today for the legalisation of drugs. We are publishing some excerpts from his paper.

("Single issue" booklet for the XXXV Congress of The Radical Party - Budapest 22-26 april 1989)

It is important to realise that throughout the world, prohibitionism has been a total failure. In fact, the application of laws has only made the problem worse, has raised the price of drugs, has permitted an immense criminal network to control the dealing and to appropriate political figures and whole countries. Having seen the failure of prohibitionism, it is now time to think of a new strategy. Many countries, in fact, are approaching the problem no longer by applying laws, but from the point of view of health. I feel that this is the best way, this problem should be followed like a health problem, reducing the profits and putting an end to prohibitionism.

I believe that violence would drastically diminish if we were to change the policy of the fight against drugs and proceed to a rigid application of the laws to an intervention by the public health authorities; We should bear in mind one thing: it is not that people take drugs and then go mad, shooting and killing. The reason for the vast number of murders and thefts is linked to the profits which stem from the commerce of drugs and the control of these operations. Thus it is these profits which are at the basis of crime and if we remove the profit factor from the drug trade, I am convinced that we would considerably reduce the level of crime and improve the quality of life in our communities.

For seven and a half years, I directed an office which persecuted thousands of people accused of being associated with drugs, but I recognise, and I have personally noticed, how the system of justice has failed in its attempt to resolve this problem. I truly think that the best thing for the young people who live in the suburbs, and all over our cities, would be to prevent the drug dealers from working, and this will certainly not happen by increasing their profits, but on the contrary, by removing them.