On the New Jersey Turnpike, at least eight out of 10 searches made by state troopers were of minorities. Seventy percent of the time, they came up empty-handed, leaving a residue of bitterness and the rest of us no safer. Until a Supreme Court ruling last week, some police departments established roadblocks designed to catch people with drugs. Applying common sense, the court said that a sobriety checkpoint was designed to protect the public from drunk drivers, but possession of drugs was a different matter. That's a law enforcement issue and, as the Constitution requires, a warrant is necessary.
Prisoners convicted for drug-related crimes clog the jails.
As with stops on the Jersey Turnpike, the effect is racially disproportionate. Blacks comprise about 12 percent of the population but account for 62 percent of drug offenders in state prisons. This is an expensive proposition. There's some evidence that Americans are getting fed up with a hard-line approach to drugs. In California, voters approved Proposition 36, a referendum to have nonviolent drug offenders sentenced to treatment facilities rather than to jail.