U.S.'S LONG REACH

The Sept. 23 article, "Middle ground sought in 'holy war' on drug," quotes
Robert MacCoun: "European countries have shown it is possible to tackle the
problem by reducing drug use and the harm it causes -- even in a country
where drugs are still prohibited."

Mr. MacCoun, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, seems
not to realize that Europe's halfway measures toward "legalization" result
more from U.S. and United Nations intransigence and pressure than from
demonstrated effectiveness of these measures.

True, due to the long and irrational prohibition of drugs, a sudden change
to even carefully controlled legalization may well result in a certain
blowback of undesirable effects, much as the sudden deregulation of the
gold price by former U.S. president Richard Nixon resulted in wild price
swings for many years.

But in both cases, it is the long period of artificial control that is the
root cause of the gyrations, not the final institution of rational policy.
Thus drug prohibition must eventually be renounced as were alcohol
prohibition, McCarthyism, witch trials and a host of other inquisitions.

Now, we should be carefully calculating how to arrive at this necessary and
humane goal rather than believing we can significantly reduce the harm of
drug use while retaining prohibitionary policies.

Robert Webster

Review Editor

International Journal of Drug Policy

Auvare, France