A BETTER WAY TO CONTROL DRUGS

To The Editor: Re: "Our drug policies are completely wrong" (T-N, Feb. 6).

I'd like to add that if tough-on-drugs policies worked, the quixotic
goal of a drug free America would have been reached a long time ago.

And if tolerant drug policies created more drug use, the Netherlands
would have much higher drug usage rates than the United States. They do not.

In fact, the Dutch use marijuana and other recreational drugs at much
lower rates than Americans do. (See http://www.drugwarfacts.org/thenethe.htm.)

And if tolerant drug policies caused more overall crime, especially
violent crime, the Dutch would have much higher crime rates. They do not.

The Dutch murder rate is less than one-third our per capita murder
rate and their rate of incarceration is about one-seventh the U.S. rate.

In the Netherlands, marijuana is sold to adults without criminal
sanctions in coffee shops. Here, marijuana is sold by criminals who
often sell other, more dangerous drugs, and who often offer free
samples of the more dangerous drugs to their marijuana customers --
thus the gateway effect.

Legalize, regulate and control the sale of marijuana and we close the gateway.

Kirk Muse

Mesa, Ariz.