CLUB CRACKDOWN WASTES ENERGIES

Cracking down on Richmond's nightlife scene will inconvenience a few
nightclub owners, but it won't prevent youths from using the drug Ecstasy.
Club-drugs are the latest illegal drugs to be making headlines, but they
won't be the last, until politicians acknowledge the drug war's inherent
failure.

Drug policies modeled after our disastrous experiment with alcohol
prohibition have given rise to a youth-oriented black market. Illegal drug
dealers do not ID for age, but they do push trendy, profitable club-drugs,
regardless of the dangers posed. There are cost-effective alternatives. In
Europe, the Netherlands has successfully reduced overall drug use by
replacing marijuana prohibition with regulation.

Dutch rates of drug use are significantly lower than U.S. rates in every
category. Separating the hard and soft drug markets and establishing age
controls for marijuana have proven more effective than zero tolerance.

If health outcomes instead of cultural norms determined drug laws,
marijuana would be legal. Whereas alcohol poisoning kills thousands
annually, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death.
Granted, like any drug, marijuana can be harmful if abused. It's not the
relative harmlessness of marijuana that necessitates a change in drug laws,
but rather the deadliness of marijuana prohibition.

Robert Sharpe

Washington, D.C.