CURRENT DRUG POLICY ENHANCES CRIME

Editor,

The Herald:

(Re: Gwynne Dyer's Sep. 14 column:)

There is a middle ground between drug prohibition and blanket
legalization. Switzerland's heroin maintenance program, which provides
addicts with standardized doses in a clinical setting has been shown
to reduce disease, death and crime among chronic users, eliminates
many of the problems associated with illicit heroin use. The success
has inspired heroin maintenance pilot projects in Canada, Germany,
Spain, Denmark and the Netherlands.

If expanded, prescription heroin maintenance would render illegal
heroin trafficking unprofitable.

Marijuana should be taxed and regulated like alcohol, only without the
ubiquitous advertising. 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 like methamphetamine.

Marijuana is arguably safer than legal alcohol; it makes no sense to
waste tax dollars on failed drug policies that finance organized crime
and facilitate the use of hard drugs.

Robert Sharpe, Common Sense for Drug Policy

Washington, D.C.