TREATMENT, LEGALIZATION MAKES MORE SENSE

Editor: How should B.C. respond to the growing use of methamphetamine? (The
Times, March 26).

Here in the United States, New York City chose the zero tolerance approach
during the crack cocaine epidemic of the '80s.

Meanwhile, Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry was smoking crack and
America's capital had the highest per capita murder rate in the country. Yet
crack use declined in both cities simultaneously.

The decline was not due to a slick anti-drug advertising campaign or the
passage of mandatory minimum sentencing laws.

Simply put, the younger generation saw firsthand what crack was doing to
their older brothers and sisters and decided for themselves that crack was
bad news.

This is not to say nothing can be done about meth. Access to drug treatment
is critical for the current generation of meth users.

In order to protect future generations from drugs like meth, policy makers
need to adopt the Canadian Senate's common sense proposal to tax and
regulate marijuana. As long as marijuana distribution remains in the hands
of organized crime, consumers will continue to come into contact with hard
drugs like meth.

This "gateway" is the direct result of a fundamentally flawed policy.

Drug policy reform may send the wrong message to children, but I like to
think the children are more important than the message.

Robert Sharpe, policy analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy, Washington,
D.C.