In Regards to Recent Concerns:

ARE WE LOOKING AT ALL SIDES OF DRUG ISSUE?

Drug use is clearly a major concern in our community, especially among parents.

There have been quite a few arrests for marijuana possession lately.

I also recently covered a parent-organized rally against drug use,
and there have been a lot of concerned calls into the Express office,
prompting many conversations about the issue among our staff.

At the risk of incurring the wrath of other parents and my editor,
not to mention local law enforcement, I want to play devil's advocate
for a moment.

Every issue has more than one side, and so far we've all been
overlooking one of them. Does prohibition actually work? Does it make
our kids safer?

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), a group of cops and
former cops, says that arresting and jailing drug users simply leads
to more people in jail, not less use of drugs.

The cops in LEAP point to the $69 billion a year spent on the U.S.
"War on Drugs," which has seen 37 million arrests of non-violent drug
users and helped quadruple the percentage of the U.S. population in
prison thanks to mandatory minimum sentences. Many of the cops in
LEAP have been on the front lines of the "War on Drugs" themselves,
and they say the U.S. seems no closer to ending drug use and abuse.

In fact, in a news item you may have missed, new U.S. drug czar Gil
Kerlikowske just said he wants to banish the idea the U.S. is
fighting a "War on Drugs," because a war on drugs is actually a war
on the country's own citizens.

Kerlikowske, a former police chief himself, doesn't necessarily
advocate legalization. However, there are some signs of change south
of the border in actions as well as words. The Obama government has
already decided to stop raiding medical marijuana dispensaries, for one.

This is important because Canada often takes its policy cues from the
U.S., including our policies on drug use, especially since we've had
to be sensitive for a long time to the American worry about our drugs
crossing their borders.

If U.S. policy shifts, Canadian policy might well change too.

Marijuana is one drug in particular that LEAP believes should be
legalized. Marijuana, usually simple possession, accounts for the
majority of drug arrests.

LEAP argues marijuana is not even as dangerous as alcohol, so it
makes no sense to keep it illegal.

When you think about it, alcohol versus marijuana is an interesting comparison.

Alcohol is clearly addictive for many people. Alcoholism is a real
problem that destroys lives and families. Alcohol abuse destroys the
body, killing brain cells, and punishing the liver. Withdrawals from
alcohol are just as terrible as from any other addictive drug.

It's also easy to overdose on alcohol at any time, and we lose our
kids to alcohol poisoning every year, not to mention drunk driving
and drunk drivers. Drunk people can also easily become violent, as
any cop can tell you.

Marijuana, on the other hand, doesn't make people violent when used
alone. It is impossible or nearly impossible to overdose on, since
there are as yet no confirmed deaths from its use. It can be used as
a pain relief medicine. It's still uncertain whether it causes cancer
like cigarettes do. It is also uncertain and controversial whether it
actually is a "gateway" drug leading to harder drug use, as many people argue.

All of these facts, based on scientific study, have been published in
the highly respected British medical journal the Lancet.

Marijuana can certainly cause dependence, but again, so can alcohol,
and cigarettes, both legal if you're an adult.

So why are they legal while marijuana isn't?

Well, almost 75 years ago now, alcohol was in fact illegal. Concerned
mothers rallied in the streets against its use. Police raided
speakeasies that sold the stuff illegally.

Problem is, it didn't stop people from drinking it.

The real result, as we all know, was a healthy black market that
packed the pockets of organized crime with cash, until our society
realized that making it illegal simply didn't work.

In the end, it was better to make alcohol legal for adults, regulate
it, and therefore keep it off the black market. This also produced a
whole new source of tax revenue for our governments.

In fact, here in Alberta sin taxes just got raised again, making that
case of beer even more expensive but helping cover the shortfall
we're facing due to the recession.

Despite all its dangerous qualities, and that fact that underage kids
often drink, no one is currently rallying against alcohol in our
communities. No one argues for resuming prohibition of alcohol
either, because at this point it's common knowledge that it doesn't work.

LEAP argues that if prohibition doesn't work for alcohol, why should
we believe it works for drugs?

They also recommend an emphasis on treatment for addiction, rather
than punishment, because they say treatment is more effective.

Of course, marijuana and drug use IS still illegal in Canada, and
even if drugs were legalized, we wouldn't want our kids using them
any more than we'd want them drinking before they were adults.

(Which, by the way, makes me wonder why we're so quick these days to
give our kids all kinds of prescription drugs, from Ritalin to what
have you, and to take them ourselves, when prescription drugs can
also be abused and are often addictive. But I digress.)

All I'm saying is that if we're going to discuss drug abuse in our
community, we should have a healthy debate about it that considers
differing views.

If we do our research, we can also be more certain we're acting on
facts, and not simply fear.