COUNTERPRODUCTIVE 'WAR'

Alex Adwan's excellent March 11 column makes the point that, despite its
high price tag, the war on drugs is not yielding much fruit. The costly
drug war is not just ineffective, it's counterproductive.

The crime, corruption and overdose deaths attributed to drugs are all
direct results of drug prohibition. Because admitting an illicit addiction
is tantamount to confessing to criminal activity, drug use is driven
underground and treatment confounded.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, injection drug
use has directly and indirectly accounted for 58 percent of all AIDS cases
among women in the United States. This public health crisis is a direct
result of zero tolerance policies that restrict access to clean syringes.

Ironically, the drug war's negative consequences are routinely used to
justify its existence. It's time to stop wasting taxpayers' money on drug
policies that do more harm than good.

Robert Sharpe
Washington, D.C.