DRUGS AS 'FORBIDDEN FRUIT'

About the article "Rockton gets new DARE officer" (April 6) in the
Register Star:

Common sense tells us that the DARE program should deter our youth
from using illegal drugs.

But it doesn't. DARE graduates are more likely to use illegal drugs, not less.

Common sense tells us that the Earth is the center of the universe
and our solar system. But it's not.

Common sense tells us that prohibiting a product should substantially
reduce the use of the product prohibited. Actually, prohibition tends
to substantially increase the desire for the product prohibited.

Before marijuana was criminalized in the U.S. via the Marijuana Tax
Act of 1937, the vast majority of Americans had never heard of
marijuana. Now everybody in the U.S. knows what marijuana is, and the
U.S. government estimates that at least 90 million Americans have used it.

About half of all high school students will use marijuana before they graduate.

People want what they are told they cannot have; that's especially
true with children. The lure of the "forbidden fruit" is very powerful.

- -- Kirk Muse

Mesa, Ariz.