INITIATIVE ON DRUGS DESERVES SUPPORT

Anti-drug strategy must be realistic THE STRONGER marijuana Jenna Price
expresses concern over ('Scary drug ads treat parents as dopes', CT, 27
March, p.9) is actually a healthy alternative to weak marijuana. The only
difference between the two is that the stronger strains require
significantly less smoke inhalation. Marijuana-smoking youth already know this.

Paul Dillon, National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre information manager,
is right about anti-drug scare tactics not working; in fact they do more
harm than good.

Youth who realise they are being lied to about marijuana often make the
mistake of assuming that harder drugs are relatively harmless as well. This
is a recipe for disaster.

After almost two decades of scare tactics in the United States, heroin use
among high school seniors has reached record levels.

Anti-drug education programs need to be reality-based or they will backfire
when kids are inevitably exposed to drug use among their peers.

Robert Sharpe, M.P.A., Program Officer The Lindesmith Center - Drug Policy
Foundation,
http:/ /www.drugpolicy.org, Washington, DC United States of America