PROPOSED CURE FOR DRUG PROBLEMS

I read with much interest your Jan 14 article about the planned emphasis on
rehabilitating drug offenders. Although a step in the right direction,
increased efforts for drug rehabilitation are but a Band-Aid placed upon a
gaping wound caused by the War on Drugs. The War has been generated from
laws being passed to create consensual crimes that occur when a person
participates in an activity that harms nobody except possibly himself. Of
course, once the desirable activity is made illegal, the consensual crime
creates opportunities for real crimes, corruption, and large local and
national governments to flourish. The War injures the adventurous and
rebellious young, the emotionally disturbed, and the poor, but the War has
been a boon to lawyers, law enforcement and punishment officials, drug
pushers, and activists predicting the end of this sinful world.

I propose decriminalizing drugs while placing more emphasis upon drug-user
rehabilitation. Alcohol and tobacco would be lumped together with the newly
legalized drugs. The money to finance drug rehabilitation programs would
come from taxes imposed upon the sale of all these drugs. Request for
rehabilitation would be voluntary or coerced by an employee's company. The
drug's tax amount would be clearly stated to emphasize that the drug may
inflict pain as well as impart pleasure. Drug pushers (now respectable
corporate entities) would need to clearly state the possible harmful side
effects and the current number of people undergoing rehabilitation. Drug
manufacturers and sellers would be barred from employing movie actors to
push drugs, as currently occurs with tobacco (see The Baltimore Sun series
on cigars, 1/11/98-1/13/98). Misleading advertising would not be tolerated.

Critics of legalizing drugs often point to the problems that we have with
alcohol and tobacco and question why we would want to increase the quantity
of drugs used. The drug policy outlined above would, if well implemented,
not only decrease alcohol and tobacco use, but decrease other drug use as
well. Divisions between old and young could be healed and the nation could
go forward to solve urgent problems that have been ignored because of our
acute involvement with the Drug War.

Kevin Fansler