MANDATORY PRISON SENTENCES HAVEN'T WORKED IN AMERICA: SHARPE

To the editor,

Regarding MP Rob Moore's March 24 column, when it comes to drugs,
mandatory minimum prison sentences are proven failures.

If harsh sentences deterred illicit drug use, Canada's southern
neighbor would be a "drug-free" America. That's not the case. The US
drug war has done little other give the former land of the free the
highest incarceration rate in the world. The drug war is a cure worse
than the disease.

Drug prohibition finances organized crime at home and terrorism
abroad, which is then used to justify increased drug war spending.
It's time to end this madness and instead treat all substance abuse,
legal or otherwise, as the public health problem it is.

Thanks to public education efforts, tobacco use has declined
considerably in recent years. Apparently mandatory minimum prison
sentences, civil asset forfeiture, random drug testing and racial
profiling are not necessarily the most cost-effective means of
discouraging unhealthy choices. Drug abuse is bad, but the drug war is worse.

Robert Sharpe

MPA Policy Analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington, DC