ABOUT DRUG POLICY REFORM

Dear editor,

The U.S. drug war is a cure worse than the disease. Attempts to limit
the supply of illegal drugs while demand remains constant only
increase the profitability of drug trafficking.

For addictive drugs like heroin, a spike in street prices leads
desperate addicts to increase criminal activity to feed their
desperate habits. The drug war doesn't fight crime, it fuels crime.

Drug prohibition finances organized crime at home and terrorism
abroad, which is then used to justify more drug war spending.

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.

Providing addicts with standardized doses in a clinical setting
eliminates many of the problems associated with heroin use. Heroin
maintenance pilot projects are underway 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 (cannabis) should be taxed and regulated like alcohol, only
without the ubiquitous advertising. Separating the hard and soft drug
markets is critical.

As long as marijuana distribution is controlled by organized crime,
consumers of the most popular illicit drug will continue to come into
contact with sellers of hard drugs like cocaine and heroin.

Given that marijuana is arguably safer than legal alcohol, it makes
no sense to waste scarce resources on failed policies that finance
organized crime and facilitate hard drug use.

Drug policy reform may send the wrong message to children, but I like
to think that the children are more important than the message.

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

To learn more about Canada's heroin maintenance research please
visit: http://www.naomistudy.ca/.

Robert Sharpe Policy Analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington,
D.C., the U.S.