DRUG POLICY NEEDS CHANGE

To The Packet:

Thank you for raising awareness of the Higher Education Act's denial of
student loans to youths convicted of drug offenses in your Jan. 11 editorial.

Anyone born into a wealthy family need not fear the impact of the act.
Instead of empowering at-risk students with a college degree, it limits
career opportunities and increases the likelihood that those affected will
resort to crime. Speaking of crime, convicted rapists and murderers are
still eligible for federal student loans.

As for "drug-related" crime, there is a reason liquor producers no longer
terrorize cities with deadly turf battles. Alcohol prohibition ended in
1933 and with it the inflated black market profits that drove mobsters to
kill each other. While U.S. politicians ignore the historical precedent,
Europeans are embracing harm reduction, a public health alternative based
on the principle that both drug use and drug prohibition have the potential
to cause harm.

The drug war's burden on American taxpayers gets higher every year as more
and more drug users and dealers are incarcerated for consensual vices. Drug
use continues unabated as replacement dealers immediately step in to reap
outrageous black market profits. At an average cost of $25,071 per inmate
annually, maintaining the highest incarceration rate in the world can
hardly be considered fiscally conservative.

Robert Sharpe

Program Officer

The Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation

Washington, D.C.