DISPELLING MYTHS ABOUT DRUG USE

The other day, reading the New York Post's popular Page Six gossip
page, I was surprised to find a picture of me, followed by the lines:
"ABC'S John Stossel wants the government to stop interfering with
your right to get high. ... The crowd went silent at his call to
legalize hard drugs."

I had attended a Marijuana Policy Project event celebrating the New
York State Assembly's passage of a medical-marijuana bill. (The bill
hasn't passed the Senate.) I told the audience I thought it pathetic
that the mere half passage of a bill to allow sick people to try a
possible remedy would merit such a celebration. Of course medical
marijuana should be legal. For adults, everything should be legal.
I'm amazed that the health police are so smug in their opposition.

After years of reporting on the drug war, I'm convinced that this
"war" does more harm than any drug.

Independent of that harm, adults ought to own our own bodies, so it's
not intellectually honest to argue that "only marijuana" should be
legal -- and only for certain sick people approved by the state.
Every drug should be legal.

"How could you say such a ridiculous thing?" asked my assistant.
"Heroin and cocaine have a permanent effect. If you do crack just
once, you are automatically hooked. Legal hard drugs would create
many more addicts. And that leads to more violence, homelessness,
out-of-wedlock births, etc!"

Her diatribe is a good summary of the drug warriors' arguments. Most
Americans probably agree with what she said.

But what most Americans believe is wrong.

Myth No. 1: Heroin and cocaine have a permanent effect.

Truth: There is no evidence of that.

In the 1980s, the press reported that "crack babies" were
"permanently damaged." Rolling Stone, citing one study of just 23
babies, claimed that crack babies "were oblivious to affection, automatons."

It simply wasn't true. There is no proof that crack babies do worse
than anyone else in later life, according a review in the Journal of
the American Medical Association.

Myth No. 2: If you do crack once, you are hooked.

Truth: Look at the numbers -- 15 percent of young adults have tried
crack, but only 2 percent used it in the last month, according to the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. If crack is so
addictive, why do most people who've tried it no longer use it?

People once said heroin was nearly impossible to quit, but during the
Vietnam War, thousands of soldiers became addicted, and when they
returned home, 85 percent quit within one year, according to the
American Journal of Public Health.

People have free will. Most who use drugs eventually wise up and stop.

And most people who use drugs habitually live perfectly responsible
lives, as Jacob Sullum pointed out in "Saying Yes."

Myth No. 3: Drugs cause crime.

Truth: The drug war causes the crime.

Few drug users hurt or rob people because they are high. Most of the
crime occurs because the drugs are illegal and available only through
a black market. Drug sellers arm themselves and form gangs because
they cannot ask the police to protect their persons and property.

In turn, some buyers steal to pay the high black-market prices. The
government says heroin, cocaine and nicotine are similarly addictive,
and about half the people who both smoke cigarettes and use cocaine
say smoking is at least as strong an urge. But no one robs
convenience stores for Marlboros.

Alcohol prohibition created Al Capone and the Mafia. Drug prohibition
is worse. It's corrupting whole countries and financing terrorism.

The Post wrote, "Stossel admitted his own 22-year-old daughter
doesn't think (legalization) is a good idea."

But that's not what she said. My daughter argued that legal cocaine
would probably lead to more cocaine use. And therefore probably
abuse. I'm not so sure.

Banning drugs certainly hasn't kept young people from getting them.
We can't even keep these drugs out of prisons. How do we expect to
keep them out of America?

But let's assume my daughter is right, that legalization would lead
to more experimentation and more addiction. I still say: Legal is better.

While drugs harm many, the drug war's black market harms more.

And most importantly, in a free country, adults should have the right
to harm themselves.