US STRONGARM TACTICS HAVE FAILED

THE dark legacy of Richard Nixon was more than just Watergate,
Vietnam and profane language in the White House. He fired the first
shots in what would become America's war on drugs. The strong-arm
campaign clogged the penal system and left supply and demand
unscratched.

More than 25 years after Nixon left Washington in disgrace,
immortalised in All The President's Men, it has taken a second
Hollywood movie to unveil the failure of his drugs policy, picked up
again and again by successors.

Traffic, starring Michael Douglas, exposed the private dilemmas
behind the public war and earned praise from politicians and
editorial writers of the New York Times.

The extent of America's drugs problem is considerable. The country
has the highest rates of cannabis and ecstasy use among the 16-19 age
group in the world, while 80 million US citizens have taken illegal
drugs despite the threat of some of the world's stiffest sentences.

Under the 1973 Rockefeller laws, the minimum sentence for selling two
ounces or possessing four ounces of heroin or cocaine is 15 years to
life. US prisons have 500,000 users and dealers behind bars, more
than the prison population of western Europe.

Under Clinton, 4,175,357 cannabis users were arrested, yet he
admitted the imprisonment policy should be reviewed. After 30 years
of tough action, the public are demanding users be treated
differently - like in California where a new state law asks judges to
favour treatment over incarceration.