THE DRUG WAR DOESN'T FIGHT CRIME, IT FUELS CRIME

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 desperate habits. The drug war
doesn't fight crime, it fuels crime. Drug prohibition finances
organize 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 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, MPA

Policy Analyst

Common Sense for Drug Policy

www.csdp.org

Washington, DC USA