LAX POLICIES DON'T INCREASE DRUG USE

I'm writing about your outstanding editorial: "Regulate drugs instead
of increasing combative measures" (March 9).

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 substantially lower rates than Americans do. See the Web site:
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 than the United States.

They do not. The Dutch murder rate is less than one-third the U. S.
per capita murder rate and their rate of incarceration is about
one-seventh the U.S. incarceration rate.

In the Netherlands, marijuana is sold to adults in coffee shops
without criminal sanctions. In the United States, marijuana is sold by
criminals who often sell other, much 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 other recreational drugs and we can
close the gateway.

Kirk Muse

Mesa, Arizona