Q: If you could recommend specific alternatives to the "War On Drugs" to lawmakers, what would you and Ed advocate?
[Wirehead you met in New Orleans, Dennis Kleen]A: I shouldn't speak for Ed. But I would decriminalize drugs and use the billions spent on interdiction, enforcement, prosecution, incarceration, etc. into drug treatment, job training and yes, more effective investigation of violent crime. There are now more than 2 million Americans in federal prisons; tellingly they are less violent than ever before - most are there for narcotics violations and most are serving longer sentences without the possibility of parole.
And to what end? Drugs are more potent and more available than ever, and the drug trade has been rendered more violent than ever before. Human desire cannot be defeated by lawyers, guns and prison cells; it can only be mitigated by giving human beings choices about what they might legitimately desire and achieve within the context of their lives. And the drug war has little to do with any of that.
Q: What are one or two things we should look for that are new in Season 4? [anonymous]
A: It's election year in Baltimore. Uh oh.And number two? There are some children we are going to meet. And as Ed Burns likes to point out, they are going to get an education, one way or another. They are young, but they are not fools, and they are going to learn the truth about their world and their place in it, about what we expect of them and what their options and opportunities truly are.
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