HIGH ANXIETIES

Philip Cooper refers to the current problems we have with alcohol as the
reason we should not legalise marijuana (Letters, 14 March, p 58).

What he fails to mention is that the US tried banning alcohol, and it was a
disaster. Prohibition failed to produce any long-term reductions in alcohol
use and created new problems of its own.

One such problem was a massive increase in the use of alcohol by children.
During Prohibition, school officials reported that they were unable to hold
school dances and other events because it had become fashionable for all
the male students to show up with a hip flask of whisky. They even had to
close some schools for a while because so many kids were coming to school
drunk.

The slogan of the campaign for Prohibition was "Save the Children". The
same slogan was used in the campaign for its repeal--by some of the same
people who had campaigned for Prohibition in the first place. They reported
that, before Prohibition, their children had been unable to get alcohol
easily. After Prohibition came into effect, their children became involved
in the liquor trade. The major problems of violent crime and alcohol use by
children did not diminish until alcohol was legalised once again.

The lesson of history is that these drugs may be bad, for a lot of reasons,
but that prohibition doesn't solve those problems, it only makes the
situation worse.

CLIFFORD A. SCHAFFER
DRCNet Online Library of Drug Policy
http://www.druglibrary.org