A NEW APPROACH TO DEALING WITH DRUGS

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 from 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.

Marijuana is arguably safer than legal alcohol; it makes no sense to
waste tax dollars on failed marijuana policies that finance organized
crime and open a gateway to hard drugs.

Drug policy reform may send the wrong message to children, but I like
to think the children are more important than the message.

For information on the efficacy of heroin maintenance please read the
following British Medical Journal report:
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/327/7410/310

To learn more about Canada's heroin maintenance research please
visit: http://www.naomistudy.ca/

Robert Sharpe, MPA Policy Analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy
www.csdp.org Washington, DC