ANY POLICY MODELED ON PROHIBITION MUST FAIL

Kudos to Jelani Lawson for his excellent Forum article on the need to
reassess the drug "war."

Emphasizing public health approaches is indeed "smart on crime." Current
drug policies, modeled after our disastrous experiment with Prohibition,
are proven failures. When supply of illegal drugs is successfully limited
by interdiction while demand remains constant, drug trafficking becomes
more profitable. The obscene profits to be made guarantee replacement dealers.

In the short term, drug prices are higher, which means desperate addicts
increase criminal activity to feed desperate habits. Those who get caught
are placed in prisons that serve to transmit violent habits and values
rather than reduce them.

The drug war effectively fuels crime, while failing miserably at preventing
use.

With organized crime comes corruption, and the United States is not immune.

The ongoing Los Angeles Police Department Rampart scandal is but one
example. This insidious corruption stretches from coast to coast and
reaches the highest levels.

Entire countries in Latin America have been destabilized because of the
corrupting influence of organized-crime groups that profit from the illegal
drug trade. Drug laws fuel organized crime and corruption, which is then
used to justify increased drug-war spending.

It's time to end this madness and start treating all substance abuse --
legal or otherwise -- as the public health problem that it is.

Robert Sharpe

Washington, D.C.