RATHER THAN PROHIBITION, REGULATE LEGALIZED MARIJUANA TO PROTECT KIDS

MILLIONS of Americans sent a clear message Nov. 7 that they have lost faith
in the nation's war on drugs. In five out of six states where drug-policy
issues were on the ballot, voters decided in favor of major change
regarding treatment instead of prison for nonviolent offenders, medical
marijuana for patients when recommended by a doctor and reform of the civil
asset-forfeiture law.

A growing number of Americans are beginning to realize that the drug war
does far more harm than good. When it comes to drug policy, the people are
way ahead of the politicians. Fear of being labeled soft on drugs compels
mainstream politicians to buy into the big lie that the drug war both
fights crime and protects children from drugs.

Drug-related crime is used to justify increased drug-war spending when, in
fact, the relationship is largely misunderstood. When the supply of
addictive drugs is successfully limited 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 transmit violent habits and values rather than
reduce them. Just as alcohol prohibition once did, the drug war fuels crime.

Prohibition was repealed in 1933 amid concerns that the thriving black
market was financing organized crime and exposing minors to liquor at
levels previously unheard of. The infamous mobsters of the 1920s and 1930s
did not ID customers for age, nor did they add warning labels to
potentially lethal bottles of bathtub gin.

Protections are in place today to keep liquor out of the hands of children.
No such protections exist when it comes to popular illicit drugs. The drug
war fails miserably at its primary mandate: protecting children from drugs.

The Monitoring the Future Survey, an ongoing study of the behaviors,
attitudes and values of young Americans, reports that for every year from
1975 to 1999, at least 82 percent of high school seniors surveyed found
marijuana "fairly easy" or "very easy" to obtain. In 1999, 89 percent of
high school seniors reported that marijuana was fairly or very easy to obtain.

Drug policies designed to protect children have given rise to a
youth-oriented black market in which marijuana, the most popular illicit
drug, is readily available, despite its illegality. Like any drug,
marijuana can be harmful if abused, which is why keeping it out of the
hands of children during their formative years is critical. As previously
mentioned, the black market has no controls for age. Fortunately, marijuana
is relatively benign compared to alcohol, which continues to be the most
popular recreational drug.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 19,515 Americans died
alcohol-induced deaths in 1998. In the thousands of years humans have used
marijuana, there has never been an overdose death attributed to pot. The
same cannot be said of aspirin, much less a toxic drug like alcohol.

Although marijuana is relatively harmless, its prohibition is deadly.
Marijuana is demonized as a gateway drug, yet our misguided drug policy
provides the gateway. While there is nothing inherent in marijuana that
compels users to try drugs like heroin, its black-market status puts users
in contact with criminals who push them. As long as pot remains illegal,
the established criminal distribution network will ensure that kids are
exposed to every poison concocted by pushers. Current drug policy is
effectively a gateway policy.

Sensible regulation is desperately needed to undermine the volatile black
market and restrict access to drugs. As counterintuitive as it may seem,
replacing marijuana prohibition with regulation would ultimately do a
better job of protecting children from drugs than the failed drug war.

Granted, such a pragmatic approach is unlikely to gain widespread political
support any time soon. Far too much political capital has been invested in
the failed drug war. Nonetheless, this year's election results indicate
that there is hope for a much-needed overhaul of America's
counterproductive drug laws.