DRUG LAWS NEED REFORM

Re Kingsley Guy's column, "Drug policy has failed": There is a middle
ground between drug prohibition and blanket legalization. Providing
addicts with standardized doses in a clinical setting eliminates many
problems 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.

Marijuana should be taxed and regulated like alcohol, only without
the ubiquitous advertising. As long as marijuana distribution is
controlled by organized crime, consumers will continue to come into
contact with sellers of addictive 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.

Robert Sharpe, policy analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy, Washington, D.C.