LETTER OF THE WEEK

DRUGS WON THE WAR

Re: Canada's illicit drug trade growing, March 3.

So if I read this article correctly, all the billions of dollars
spent on the "war on drugs" in the United States and Canada has
resulted in a growth in the trade.

The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) spokesperson then
goes on to say what a "professional" job the RCMP and the Canadian
government have done in combating drug trafficking.

This raises a couple of questions: are illicit drugs harder to find
than they were 30 years ago when the "war on drugs" started? No. Has
scarcity even made the price go up? Again no.

So, in other words, prohibition has completely failed and, in fact,
has caused a great deal of harm by criminalizing a large segment of
the population for use of a relatively harmless herb (marijuana).

Compare this to the approach toward cigarettes, a legal product
guaranteed to kill 50 per cent of its consumers.

Tobacco is taxed quite heavily. Those taxes pay for education and
smoking cessation programs. And smoking rates have declined
substantially over the same 30-year period.

So, you would think that, if your real goal was to reduce illicit
drug use, the "professional" approach would be to admit that
prohibition has failed and try legalization, regulation, taxation,
and education. Of course, that might threaten those "drug and related
budgets" which the INCB insist must be maintained. If they actually
solved the problem, a whole lot of "enforcers" would need new jobs.

Scott Kelland

Merrickville

Pubdate: Sat, 5 Mar 2011

Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)

Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v11/n147/a07.html