IT'S CHEAPER TO PREVENT DRUG ADDICTION THAN TO TREAT IT

Re: The war on drugs has become a war against us, March 23

Columnist Peter McKnight's assertion that drug prohibition is doomed
to failure may or may not be correct.

Unfortunately, he neglects to consider a major factor that gets lost
in the all-or-nothing debate over legalization.

That factor is prevention.

For less than $2 per student, education ministry-approved curriculum
could provide evidence-based preventive drug education in B.C.
classrooms. Vancouver's Insite program spends about $540 per client so
addicts can have a safe injection site.

Yet to provide all 350,000 B.C. students in Grades 4 to 10 with seven
years of preventive education could cost less than $600,000. Insite's
yearly budget is nearly $3 million.

Treatment of existing problems is essential, but it might be wise to
steer more resources toward the future. Education can work, as it has
for tobacco, and the price is minuscule compared to the cost of a
failed "war on drugs," or one against users we'll never wage.

Jay Niver

Communications/Marketing Director,

Alcohol-Drug Education Service,

Port Coquitlam