POLICE STATE NOT THE ANSWER

Editor:

Re: Sniffing out a balance, Herald editorial, May 5.

It would be a mistake to assume the police state approach to public
health problems works. Here in the United States, drug-sniffing dogs
in schools and random drug testing have led to a loss of civil
liberties, while failing miserably at preventing drug use. Marijuana
use is higher in the U.S. than any European country, yet America is
one of the few Western countries that punish citizens who prefer
marijuana to martinis.

Thanks to the war on some drugs, Canada's southern neighbour now has
the highest incarceration rate in the world. The drug war is a
cultural inquisition, not a public health campaign. Criminal records
are inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective as deterrents.

Can Canada afford to emulate the harm maximization approach of the
former land of the free and current record holder in citizens incarcerated?

The results of a comparative study of European and U.S. rates of drug
use can be found at: www.monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/espad_pr.pdf

United Nations stats: www.unodc.org

ROBERT SHARPE, policy analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington, D.C.