DRUG POLICY MUST BEAR RESPONSIBILITY

Reporter Editor:

If marijuana had been legalized in the 1970s, there would be no Ecstasy
epidemic in Solano County and the nation. The crack scourge of the 1980s may
very well have never occurred.

Kids might actually believe the club drug warnings making the rounds if they
were not already suspicious of taxpayer-funded anti-drug propaganda. Reefer
madness hysteria continues to this day and causes far more problems than it
solves.

As counterintuitive as it may seem, legalizing marijuana would go a long way
toward protecting America's youth.

According to the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Colombia
University, children have an easier time purchasing marijuana than beer.
Current drug laws not only expose minors to marijuana, but they also
facilitate the introduction of hard drugs. While there is nothing inherent
in the pot plant that compels users to try harder drugs, its black market
status puts users in contact with criminals who sell methamphetamine and
heroin. Marijuana prohibition is, in effect, a gateway drug policy.

This misguided culture war has gone on long enough. Legalizing marijuana
would both limit access and separate the hard and soft drug markets which
serve to introduce youth to the truly deadly drugs.

Robert Sharpe, Students for Sensible Drug Policy
George Washington University, Washington, D.C.