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RETIRED POLICE CHIEF, EXPERT WITNESS: McNamara Tells California to Stop Arresting Drug Users and to Offer Voluntary Treatment Instead (NEW: Oct 3) Sacramento: Sept 29 - Retired San Jose Police Chief, and Hoover Institution Research Fellow Joseph D. McNamara testified as an expert witness on California's drug and alcohol policies at a hearing held by the Little Hoover Commission on State Government. McNamara quoted a study originating from the National Academy of Sciences declaring that the lack of adequate data to judge the impact of the nation's drug policies was "unconscionable." McNamara said the same may be said of California's policies, and the state's current fiscal problems call for changes in an expensive and failing drug policy. He said that using the police in a doomed effort to stop people from using drugs in private resulted in less enforcement for serious crimes and discriminated against Hispanics, African-Americans and young people. Stigmatizing all drug users as criminals and locking them up, damages their futures, and harms families, communities and all of California, according to McNamara. He criticized the lack of treatment available for drug users, citing a federal government study showing that California has more than half a million people desiring treatment for whom no treatment is available. McNamara recommended to the Little Hoover Commissioner on state government that California should stop arresting people whose only crime is use or possession of small amounts of drugs for their own use. He said the enormous savings could be used to provide voluntary treatment. Quoting former drug Czar General Barry McCaffrey's statement that we should not consider it a drug war but as a long-term struggle similar to that against cancer or heart disease, McNamara noted that we do not lock up people with those problems or even those who ignore medical warnings about how to avoid those and other diseases.
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