DARE NOT BASED ON REALITY

In response to the article "Latest Weed Win Has Pot Foes Smoking Mad" [August
7-14], I would like to offer another viewpoint, that of the Drug Policy
Alliance in the U.S., a strong opponent of the war on drugs. They put out a
book for teachers and parents called Safety First: A Reality Based Approach to
Teens, Drugs, and Drug Education. You can access the book via
www.drugpolicyalliance.org/ and click on Safety First.

The book points out the failure of DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) and
other abstinence-based programs to reduce drug use among youth.

It lists four myths of conventional drug education:

1. Experimentation with drugs is not a common part of teenage culture.

2. Drug use is the same as drug abuse.

3. Marijuana is the gateway to drugs such as heroin and cocaine.

4. Exaggerating risks will deter young people from experimentation.

If you demonize marijuana, and a teen does not become addicted, then she or he
may try heroin, not expecting to get addicted. There are also adults who do not
know that you can become addicted to heroin by smoking it. Mixed messages and
misinformation are recipes for disaster. The book lists extensive studies and
commissions that support its claims.

This book and other information put out by the Drug Policy Alliance are a
breath of fresh air in an often-emotional debate. It is much more in tune with
my own observations and discussions with addicts as a pharmacist working in the
Downtown Eastside. The idea is to deal with drug education the same way we deal
with other potentially harmful activities that youth participate in, like
driving and sex. You can't save people from themselves by legal means alone.
But you can give them knowledge to make better decisions.

Ethan Nadelmann, head of the Drug Policy Alliance, spoke in Vancouver a couple
of months ago. He encouraged advocates of the four-pillar plan to forge ahead,
as Vancouver is at the forefront of rational drug policy in North America.

(Also, Gail Johnson did not include in the article the names of the safer, more
effective alternatives to medical marijuana.)

Sharon Zvonar

Vancouver