LOSERS AND WINNERS IN THE WAR ON DRUGS

The bottom line is that when substances are legal, they are perceived as
harmless. But my son's death was attributed to a fatal cardiac arrest
following ingestion of a small amount of cocaine, so I know better.

Psychoactive and addictive drugs are illegal because they are dangerous, and
people under the influence of these mind-altering substances often do
terrible things to themselves and to others. One of the common denominators
of teens in treatment is self-mutilation. Treatment is nothing more than
damage control -- and not very effective at that.

All the rhetoric of the druggies should not blind the public to the fact
that making it safe, affordable and comfortable to do drugs will create
hundreds of thousands of new drug users every year, just as tobacco does. If
society had known 100 years ago what it knows today, it is doubtful tobacco
would ever have become a legal substance. Marijuana has a far greater
potential to do harm -- more than 12,500 scientific studies say so
regardless of the spin put on that information by the media.

Drug use is not a victimless crime. A group called Mothers Without Children
will attest to the deaths of their children from the tragic side effects
these substances often have.

Sandra S. Bennett

Director, Northwest Center for Health & Safety