A MIDDLE GROUND ON DRUGS

Re: Gwynne Dyer's column on the War on Drugs, The Tribune, Sept. 11:

There is a middle ground between drug prohibition and blanket TV
legalization.

Switzerland's heroin maintenance program has been shown to reduce
disease, death and crime among chronic users.

Providing addicts with standardized doses in a clinical setting
eliminates many of the problems associated with illicit heroin use.
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 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.

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:
www.bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/327/7410/310

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

Robert Sharpe, MPA

Policy Analyst

Common Sense for Drug Policy

Washington, DC