DON'T FOLLOW U.S. DRUG POLICY

To the editor,

I'm writing about Stan White's thoughtful letter: "How DARE they" (2-27-05).
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 that's prohibited.

Actually, prohibition tends to substantially increase the desire for the
product that's 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 us it before they graduate.

People want what they are told they cannot have-especially children. The
lure of the "forbidden fruit" is very powerful.

No other nation on the planet has spent more of its resources fighting drug
abuse nor arrested more of its citizens for drug law violations than the
United States. Yet no other nation has been less successful in solving its
drug abuse problems than the U. S.

My advice to Canada is to carefully observe U. S. drug policy-then do the
opposite. Don't follow us-we're lost.

Kirk Muse

Mesa, Arizona