CHOOSE BETWEEN FREE AND 'DRUG-FREE'

So Bibb County has turned to drug-sniffing dogs to prevent residents from
making unhealthy choices.

Throughout the nation, the steady rise in the use of warrantless police
searches, drug-sniffing dogs and random drug testing has led to a loss of
civil liberties in America, while failing miserably at preventing drug use.

Based on findings that criminal records are inappropriate as health
interventions and ineffective as deterrents, a majority of European Union
countries have decriminalized marijuana.

Despite marijuana prohibition and perhaps because of forbidden fruit
appeal, lifetime use of marijuana is higher in the U.S. than any European
country.

The drug war threatens the integrity of a country founded on the concept of
limited government.

The United States now has the highest incarceration rate in the world, in
large part due to the war on some drugs.

At an average cost of $25,071 per inmate annually, maintaining the world's
largest prison system can hardly be considered fiscally conservative.

America can either be a free country or a "drug-free" country, but not both.

It's not possible to wage a moralistic war against consensual vices unless
privacy is completely eliminated, along with the Constitution. Drug abuse
is bad, but the zero tolerance drug war is worse.

Robert Sharpe

Program Officer

Drug Policy Alliance

Washington, D.C.