US VIEWPOINT ON DRUG ABUSE

Dear editor,

How should Port Hardy respond to the growing use of crack cocaine (North
Island Gazette, April 2)?

Here in the United States, New York City chose the zero-tolerance approach
during the crack epidemic of the 1980s. Meanwhile, Washington, D.C. Mayor
Marion Barry was smoking crack and the U.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 an 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 siblings.

This is not to say that nothing can be done. Access to drug treatment is
critical for the current generation of crack addicts.

In order to protect future generations from drugs like crack, policymakers
need to adopt the Canadian Senate's commonsense recommendations regarding
marijuana.

In the words of Senator Pierre Claude Nolin, "Scientific evidence
overwhelmingly indicates that cannabis is substantially less harmful than
alcohol and should be treated not as a criminal issue but as a social and
public health issue."

Taxing and regulating marijuana is a cost-effective alternative to the
never-ending drug war. As long as marijuana distribution remains in the
hands of organized crime, consumers will continue to come into contact with
hard drugs.

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.

For more information on the Canadian Senate report please visit:

http://www.parl.gc.ca/37/1/parlbus/commbus/senate/com-e/ille-e/press-e/04sep02-e.htm.

The following National Institute of Justice study confirms the spontaneous
post-'80s rejection of crack cocaine by the younger generation:

http://www.ncjrs.org/txtfiles1/nij/187490.txt

Robert Sharpe,

Program Officer, Drug Policy Alliance

Washington, D.C.

Editor's note: Mr. Sharpe says he wrote in response to the Gazette article
archived at the Media Awareness Project (MAP). He writes,"MAP is a media
watchdog site dedicated to drug policy reform, i.e. public health
alternatives to the drug war. Local readers send in drug policy related
news articles that are posted on the web site. The brains behind MAP is a
Canadian webmaster who lives in Metchosin, but MAP relies heavily on
volunteer editors and 'newshawks' in English-speaking countries around the
world."