"HARD DRUGS" VS "SOFT DRUGS" - MAKE THE DISTINCTION

There is a middle ground between drug prohibition and blanket
legalization. Switzerland's heroin maintenance trials have been shown
to reduce disease, death and crime among chronic users. Addicts would
not be sharing needles if not for zero-tolerance laws that restrict
access to clean syringes, nor would they be committing crimes if not
for artificially inflated black-market prices. Heroin maintenance
pilot projects are under way in Canada, Germany, Spain and the
Netherlands. If expanded, prescription heroin maintenance would
deprive organized crime of a core client base. This would render
illegal heroin trafficking unprofitable and spare future generations addiction.

Marijuana should be taxed and regulated like alcohol, only without
the ubiquitous advertising. Separating the hard- and soft-drug
markets is critical. As long as marijuana distribution remains in the
hands of organized crime, consumers of the most popular illicit drug
will continue to come into contact with sellers of hard drugs such as
cocaine. This "gateway" is the direct result of a fundamentally
flawed policy. Given that marijuana is arguably safer than legal
alcohol, it makes no sense to waste tax dollars on failed policies
that finance organized crime and facilitate the use of hard drugs.

Robert Sharpe,

MPA Policy analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington, D.C.