ANSWER: TOBACCO IS LEGAL AND DOESN'T KILL TOO MANY TEENAGERS

Because heroin is sold via an unregulated illicit market, its quality
and purity fluctuate tremendously. A user accustomed to low-quality
heroin who unknowingly uses pure heroin will likely overdose. The
inevitable tough-on-drugs reaction to overdose deaths is a threat to
public safety. Attempts to limit the supply of illegal drugs while
demand remains constant only increase the profitability of
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.

While the U.S. remains committed to moralistic drug policies modeled
after America's disastrous experiment with alcohol prohibition,
Europe has largely abandoned the drug war in favor of harm reduction
alternatives. Switzerland's heroin maintenance program has been shown
to reduce drug-related disease, death and crime among chronic users.
Addicts would not be sharing needles if not for zero-tolerance laws
that restrict access to clean syringes, nor would they be committing
crimes if not for artificially inflated black-market prices.

Providing chronic addicts with standardized doses in a clinical
setting eliminates many of the problems associated with illicit
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. Putting public health before politics 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