AMERICAN QUESTIONS CANADA'S DRUG WAR

Regarding the July 18 article on RCMP efforts to target local marijuana
grow operations, Canadian tax dollars are being wasted on anti-drug
strategies that only make marijuana growing more profitable.

The drug war's distortion of basic supply and demand dynamics makes an
easily grown weed literally worth its weight in gold.

With money practically growing on trees any operations destroyed will be
replaced.

And let's not kid ourselves about protecting children. The thriving black
market has no controls for age, making it easier for teenagers to buy
illegal drugs than beer.

Politicians need to stop worrying about the message drug policy reform
sends to children and start thinking about the children themselves.

There are cost-effective alternatives to the failed drug war.

In Europe, the Netherlands has successfully reduced overall drug use by
replacing marijuana prohibition with regulation. Separating the hard and
soft drug markets and establishing age controls for marijuana has proven
more effective than zero tolerance.

As the most popular illicit drug in Canada, marijuana provides the black
market contacts that introduce users to drugs like heroin. This "gateway"
is the direct result of a fundamentally flawed policy.

Given that marijuana is arguably safer than legal alcohol, it makes no
sense to waste tax dollars on policies that finance organized crime groups
like the Hells Angels and facilitate the use of deadly hard drugs.

I regret not having Canadian statistics for you.

If you are interested in a dated comparison of Dutch vs. U.S. rates of drug
use one can be found at www.netherlands-embassy.org/c_drugstat.html More
recent figures can be found at www.drugwarfacts.org/thenethe.htm Annual
causes of death in the U.S.: www.drugwarfacts.org/causes.htm

- -Robert Sharpe, program officer, The Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy
Foundation, Washington, D.C.