DRUG POLICY FAILING

So British teenagers are more likely to take illegal drugs than youth
anywhere else in Europe (Oldham Chronicle February 20). Current drug
policy in Britain is obviously a failure.

That being the case, why not consider an alternative approach?
Despite dramatically lower per capita spending on the drug problem,
the Netherlands has successfully reduced overall drug use by
replacing cannabis prohibition with regulation. Dutch rates of drug
use are significantly lower than British rates.

Seperating the hard and soft drug markets and establishing controls
for age has proven more effective than zero tolerance.

As the most popular illicit drug in Britain, cannabis provides the
black market contacts that introduce users to addictive drugs like
heroin. The gateway status ascribed to cannabis is the direct result
of a fundamentally flawed policy.

Given that cannabis is arguably safer than legal alcohol, it makes no
sense to perpetuate drug policies that finance organised crime and
facilitate hard drugs.

Mainstream politicians, many of them former cannabis smokers, are
more prone to counterproductive preaching than cost-effective
pragmatism. Most politicians would rather allow a thriving black
market to continue poisoning youth than admit to the drug war's
inherent failure and open themselves up to soft of drugs criticism.

Robert Sharpe
The Lindesmith Center - Drug Policy Foundation Washington DC