U.S. DRUG ENFORCEMENT WORSE

I'm writing about Robert Sharpe's thoughtful letter: "DARE program
dangerously misleading for kids."

Common sense tells us that the DARE program should deter our youth
from using illegal drugs. But it doesn't. DARE graduates are more
likely to use illegal drugs, not less.

Common sense tells us that the Earth is the centre of the universe and
our solar system. But it's not.

Common sense tells us that prohibiting a product should substantially
reduce the use of the product that's prohibited. Actually, prohibition
tends to substantially increase the desire for the product that's
prohibited.

Before marijuana was criminalized in the U.S. via the Marijuana Tax
Act of 1937, the vast majority of Americans had never heard of
marijuana. Now everybody in the U.S. knows what marijuana is and the
U.S. government estimates that at least 90 million Americans have used
it. About half of all high school students will use it before they
graduate.

People want what they are told they cannot have, especially children.
The lure of the "forbidden fruit" is very powerful.

No other nation on the planet has spent more of its resources fighting
drug abuse nor arrested more of its citizens for drug law violations
than the United States. Yet no other nation has been less successful
in solving its drug abuse problems than the U.S.

My advice to Canada is to carefully observe U.S. drug policy, then do
the opposite.

Don't follow us -- we're lost.

Kirk Muse

Mesa, AZ