NETHERLANDS' DRUG POLICY SUPERIOR TO U.S. APPROACH

Editor, the Tribune: The anonymous writer who questioned uncertainties
surrounding drug legalization admitted to limited knowledge of the
Netherlands' experience. The writer's confusion might stem from the fact
that U.S. drug warriors have in the past deliberately misinformed the
public about the success of alternatives to the drug war.

The misinformation campaign is easily explained. Drug policy reform
threatens to derail the drug-war gravy train. Nonetheless, it's
embarrassing that the Dutch embassy was forced to issue public
announcements and create an Internet site with accurate figures. Despite
dramatically lower per-capita spending on the drug problem, Holland has
successfully reduced overall drug use by replacing marijuana prohibition
with regulation. Holland's rates of drug use are significantly lower than
U.S. rates.

Separating the hard- and soft-drug markets and establishing controls for
age has proved more effective than the U.S. zero-tolerance policies. As the
most popular illicit drug in America, marijuana provides the black market
contacts that introduce users to hard drugs such as meth. The "gateway"
status ascribed to marijuana is the direct result of a fundamentally flawed
policy. Given that marijuana is arguably safer than legal alcohol, it makes
no sense to perpetuate policies that finance organized crime and facilitate
the use of hard drugs. Unfortunately for Americans, our leaders are more
prone to counterproductive preaching than cost-effective pragmatism.

A dated comparison of Dutch vs. U.S. rates of drug use can be found at
http://www.netherlands-embassy.org/c_drugstat.html More recent figures can be
found at www.drugwarfacts.org/thenethe.htm

Robert Sharpe

Washington, D.C.