STUDY FOREIGN EXAMPLES

There is a middle ground between drug prohibition and legalization.
Switzerland's heroin maintenance program has been shown to reduce
disease, death and crime among chronic users. Heroin maintenance pilot
projects are under way in Canada, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands.
If expanded, prescription heroin maintenance would deprive organized
crime of a core client base. This would render illegal heroin
trafficking unprofitable and spare future generations addiction.

Marijuana should be regulated like alcohol, only without all the
advertising. As long as organized crime controls marijuana
distribution, consumers will continue to come into contact with
addictive drugs like cocaine and heroin. Marijuana prohibition is a
gateway drug policy. Compared to legal alcohol and tobacco, marijuana
is relatively harmless. The plant has never been shown to cause an
overdose death. Marijuana prohibition, however, is deadly.

Separating the hard and soft drug markets is critical to reducing
drug-related harm.

For information on the efficacy of heroin maintenance please read the
following British Medical Journal report:
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/327/7410/310

To learn more about Canada's heroin maintenance research please
visit:

http://www.naomistudy.ca/.

Robert Sharpe, Washington, D.C.