TOUGH DRUG POLICY JUST DOESN'T WORK

Re the outstanding Feb. 2 letter, "Youth drug policy is ruining lives": 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 marijuana laws caused more drug use, the Netherlands would
have much higher drug usage rates than the United States. It does not.

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

No other nation has spent more of its resources fighting drug abuse nor
imprisoned 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.

What we are doing is not working. It's time to do something different -
substantially different.