Letang says war on drugs has failed: Former prosecutor calls for economic strategy

WILMINGTON -- A veteran Republican prosecutor who retired Friday says he believes the war on drugs has been a failure and the millions spent to intercept drugs would better be used to hire a counselor for every single child in the state.

"I really think I've become a pessimist about trying to control it," said Peter N. Letang, 58, one of the state's most experienced prosecutors. He pointed to ongoing murders in Wilmington as a sign of the failure.

Letang left the state Attorney General's Office after nearly 30 years to go into private practice.

Until recently, he was the state's chief prosecutor, and after putting hundreds of criminals behind bars and seeing at least two put to death, Letang said he has questions about the direction of state and federal efforts to fight drugs -- the source of most violence and crime in Delaware and the nation.

Letang -- who successfully prosecuted Amy Grossberg and Brian Peterson, college students accused of dropping their newborn baby into a trash bin, as well as serial killer Steven Pennell -- said it is possible to order almost any illegal substance through contacts in Wilmington today and get it here tomorrow.

And the drugs come "in good-size quantities ... like black tar heroin. ... That tells me, notwithstanding all the efforts and money we are throwing at this thing, that we are not having very much success," he said.

Prohibition failed to stop the consumption of alcohol in the Roaring '20s, he said, and generations of law enforcement haven't been able to stop prostitution.

"I think we are deluding ourselves to think we are able to stem the tide, the influx of drugs. It is a situation where we have had very little success in trying to shut it down. Something has to be done to reduce the profit motive from the drug trade," he said.

Middle ground

Letang said he does not know what the solution is, but added, "If we can take away from your need to pay for a $500-a-day or $200-a-day habit, if we can reduce that to 10 bucks, then you'd hit a lot less people over the head or steal a lot fewer cars than you are now."

"There are many reasons why you don't want to decriminalize this. I don't think you ought to be able to go into Happy Harry's and buy it over the counter. But if there is some middle ground somewhere, we should pursue it."

If the state put all the money it spends on interdiction into treatment instead, Letang said, "You could have a counselor holding the hand of every student in the state." And then, "it might have some impact."

Instead, all interdiction seems to be doing is driving up the price of drugs, making them more and more lucrative for those who sell them.

"It is an economics argument," he said.

When the big drug dealers are taken off the street -- people like Bruce Stewart and Andre Huggins -- "Boom, someone else takes his place. Pull someone else off the conveyer belt," he said. "The only thing you can try to do is take the profit incentive out of it somehow," he said.

Danberg wary

Attorney General Carl C. Danberg said he agrees "wholeheartedly" with Letang that the nation is spending "astronomical sums on drug interdiction when all of the studies have shown that drug treatment is more effective."

But Danberg said he strongly opposes moving toward any sort of legalization.

"I don't know that legalization is going to reduce addiction. I suspect it might have just the opposite effect," he said, with greater availability leading to greater levels of addiction. "I would not favor legalization under any circumstances."

"But again I go back to the original point ... that if we can put the same kind of money into treatment as interdiction, we might change lives and save a few lives."

Former Attorney General Charles M. Oberly III agreed with Letang, saying his comments carry weight because they are coming from a career prosecutor who is "in the trenches ... and not a liberal."

Wilmington Mayor James M. Baker said he agreed with everything Letang said without reservation.

"I've said all along that if this was a real war, we would have surrendered long ago."