UNWISE DRUG POLICIES

Regarding Jesse Jackson's June 6 column ["It's time to end dismally
failed 'war on drugs'], don't look to the Obama administration for
change.

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy immediately
rejected the high-profile Global Commission on Drug Policy call for
reform and defended the "balanced drug control efforts" of the federal
government.

These "balanced" efforts have given the land of the free the highest
incarceration rate in the world. Prohibition-related violence has
caused upward of 35,000 deaths in Mexico over the past four years.
Despite criminal penalties, the United States has higher rates of drug
use than European Union countries like Portugal that have
decriminalized. With national debt soaring, we can no longer afford to
throw good money after bad drug policy.

Robert Sharpe, Policy Analyst

Common Sense for Drug Policy