US WAR ON DRUGS A 'TRAGIC FAILURE'

THE US War on Drugs that is run from Washington DC is a "tragic failure"
and should be wrested away from the feds and devolved to state level. So
says an influential coalition of lawyers, doctors and church leaders in
Washington state that is pressing for radical changes in drug policy.

Last week one of the coalition's members, the Seattle-based King County Bar
Association, published a 146-page report recommending that the state should
control production and distribution of psychoactive drugs such as
marijuana, cocaine and heroin. It has long argued that drug problems should
be seen primarily as a public health issue, rather than a criminal justice
problem - and hence a matter for state rather than federal government.

The association is hoping that Washington state will pass a law to
establish a commission on the problem. Around a dozen other states are
working on similar proposals.

Despite spending more than $45 billion over the past 25 years and
increasing the numbers of people imprisoned for drug offences more than
tenfold, the federal strategy has failed to curb drug use, the coalition
says. Drugs are cheaper and easier to get than ever, it adds.