ON TEENAGERS' ACCESS TO DRUGS

Regarding "The agony of ecstasy" (Editorial, Nov. 28) on the growing use of
Ecstasy:

"Club drugs" are the latest illegal drugs to be making headlines across
America, but they won't be the last.

When it comes to protecting children from drugs, the drug war fails
miserably. Drug policies designed to protect children have given rise to a
youth-oriented black market. Unlike legitimate businesses that sell liquor,
drug dealers working the black market do not ID for age. But they do push
trendy, profitable drugs like Ecstasy when given the chance, regardless of
the dangers posed.

Sensible regulation is desperately needed to undermine the black market and
restrict access to drugs. Marijuana is the most popular illicit drug.
Compared to toxic alcohol and addictive tobacco, marijuana is relatively
harmless. Yet marijuana prohibition is deadly. Although there is nothing
inherent in marijuana that compels users to try harder drugs, its
black-market status puts users in contact with criminals who sell them.

Current drug policy is a effectively gateway policy. As counterintuitive as
it may seem, replacing marijuana prohibition with regulation would do a
better job protecting children from drugs than the failed drug war.

Robert Sharpe, Washington, D.C., Nov. 30

The writer is program officer for the Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy
Foundation in Washington.