SENSIBLE SOLUTIONS FOR DRUGS

Regarding the excellent Jan. 21st editorial on drug policy, there are
cost-effective alternatives to the drug war. The current approach is
counterproductive. Numerous studies have found that prison transmits
violent habits rather than reduces them. Most non-violent drug offenders
are eventually released, with dismal job prospects due to criminal records.
Rather than waste resources turning potentially productive members of
society who use drugs into hardened criminals, we should be funding
cost-effective treatment. At an average cost of $25,071 per inmate
annually, maintaining the world's largest prison system can hardly be
considered fiscally conservative.

As far as organized crime is concerned, alcohol was very much associated
with organized crime until Prohibition was repealed in 1933. With no
controls for age, the thriving black market is very much youth-oriented.
Sensible regulation is desperately needed to undermine the black market and
restrict access to drugs. As counterintuitive as it may seem, replacing
marijuana prohibition with regulation would do a better job protecting
children than the drug war.

Compared to legal alcohol, marijuana is relatively harmless. Yet marijuana
prohibition is deadly. Although there is nothing inherent in marijuana that
compels users to try hard drugs like meth, its black market status puts
users in contact with criminals who push them. Current drug policy is
effectively a gateway policy.

In Europe, the Netherlands has managed to greatly reduce overall drug use
by separating the hard and soft drug markets and establishing controls for
age. Unfortunately for Americans, our leaders are more prone to preaching
than pragmatism.

Robert Sharpe, M.P.A.

program officer

The Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation,

Washington, DC