WAR ON DRUGS ISN'T WORKING

To the editor:

I'm writing about Robert Sharpe's outstanding letter ("Marijuana
should be legal," Jan. 28).

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 marijuana laws 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 much
lower rates than Americans do. See the Web site:
www.drugwarfacts.org/thenethe.htm.

No other nation on the planet 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
than the United States in solving its drug abuse problems.

What we are doing regarding our drug abuse problem is not working.
It's time to do something different - substantially different.

Kirk Muse

Mesa