U.S. SHOULD USE THE CZECH MODEL FOR EFFECTIVE DRUG LAW

Editor,

I'm writing about Emil Crawford's thoughtful letter in Wednesday's
Daily Lobo, "U.S. should follow Mexico by decriminalizing drugs."

Suppose another country had almost no drug problem. Suppose that
country had less than a small fraction of 1 percent of our drug
arrests. And suppose that country had almost no "drug-related crime"
and that their robbery rate was a tiny fraction of our robbery rate.

Do you think it might be wise and prudent to carefully observe that
other country's drug policy and that we should model that other
country's drug policy?

Well, there is such a country - the Czech Republic.

The Czech Republic is the only country in the world where adult
citizens can legally use, possess and grow small quantities of
marijuana. In the Netherlands, marijuana is quasi-legal, not officially legal.

The Czech overall drug arrest rate is 1 per 100,000 people. The
United States' overall drug arrest rate is 585 per 100,000.

The Czech robbery rate is 2 per 100,000. The United States' robbery
rate is 145.9 per 100,000, according to FBI statistics.

According to our drug-war cheerleaders, tolerant marijuana laws cause
people to use other, much more dangerous drugs, like methamphetamines
and heroin.

Obviously, this doesn't happen in the Czech Republic.

Why not?

Could it be that when people can legally obtain marijuana at an
affordable price, they tend not to use or desire any other recreational drugs?

Could it be that marijuana legalization actually creates a roadblock
that pushes people away from hard drug use?

Could it be that the vast majority of our so-called "drug-related
crime" is caused by our marijuana prohibition policies?

Could it be that if we keep doing what we have been doing, we will
probably get the same results?

Should we throw another trillion dollars down the drug-war rat hole?

Or should we do something different?

Kirk Muse

Daily Lobo reader