WAR ON DRUGS A CURE WORSE THAN THE DISEASE

Editor:

When it comes to drugs, mandatory minimum prison sentences are proven
failures.

If harsh sentences deterred illicit drug use, Canada's southern
neighbour would be a drug-free America.

That's not the case.

The U.S. drug war has done little other give the land of the free the
highest incarceration rate in the world.

The drug war is a cure worse than the disease.

Drug prohibition finances organized crime at home and terrorism
abroad, which is then used to justify increased drug-war spending.

It's time to end this madness and instead treat all substance abuse -
legal or otherwise - as the public health problem it is.

Thanks to public-education efforts, tobacco use has declined
considerably.

Drug abuse is bad, but the drug war is worse.

Robert Sharpe

Policy analyst

Common Sense for Drug Policy

csdp.org

Washington, D.C.