TAX AND REGULATE MARIJUANA LIKE ALCOHOL

This is in response to the Wednesday editorial. ("Make U.S. drug laws
more realistic") There is a middle ground between drug prohibition
and blanket legalization.

Switzerland's heroin maintenance program has been shown to reduce
disease, death and crime among chronic users. The success of the
Swiss program has inspired heroin maintenance pilot projects in
Canada, Germany, Spain, Denmark and the Netherlands. If expanded,
prescription heroin maintenance would deprive organized crime of a
core client base. This would render illegal heroin trafficking
unprofitable and spare future generations addiction.

Marijuana should be taxed and regulated like alcohol, only without
the ubiquitous advertising. Separating the hard and soft drug markets
is critical. As long as marijuana distribution is controlled by
organized crime, consumers of the most popular illicit drug will
continue to come into contact with sellers of addictive drugs.

Given that marijuana is arguably safer than legal alcohol -- the
plant has never been shown to cause an overdose death -- it makes no
sense to waste tax dollars on failed marijuana policies that finance
organized crime and open up a gateway to hard drug use. Drug policy
reform may send the wrong message to children, but I like to think
the children are more important than the message.

Robert Sharpe, MPA Policy analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington, D.C.