ENFORCEMENT FEEDS PROBLEM

Donnie Marshall of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) claims
in the Opposing View that the public will be protected from injury or
death associated with the diversion and abuse of OxyContin. That
worries me. The DEA has a long history of inadvertently fueling crime
and then using the resulting violence to justify ever-expanding
budgets.

Prior to the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914, narcotics users did not
prostitute themselves or commit crimes to buy drugs. There was no
need to do so. Drugs were readily available and sold at cost. Only
after drug prohibition was instituted did the price of drugs
skyrocket.

Like the DEA, organized crime is financially dependent on a
never-ending drug war without victory. Interdiction efforts make drug
trafficking more profitable by limiting supply while demand remains
constant. Our tax dollars effectively subsidize a thriving black
market.

When desperate addicts are faced with rising street prices, they
commit more crimes to feed desperate habits. If OxyContin abuse is
indeed an epidemic, we can expect a massive crime wave now that the
DEA has made OxyContin a priority. Simply put, law enforcement is
part of the problem, not the solution.

The criminalization of health problems such as addiction only makes
things worse.

When confessing to an illness is tantamount to confessing to criminal
activity, addicts are compelled to suffer in silence. I think it is
safe to say that the turnout at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings would
be rather low if alcoholism were an illness pursued with the zeal of
zero tolerance. The drug war is a prime example of a cure that is
worse than the disease.

Robert Sharpe

Washington, D.C.