Editor, The Star, Sir,

In response to the White Says Canada's Drug Treatment Strategy Headed Down
Wrong Road article:

Local MP Randy White visits a Mexican prison that warehouses addicts and
returns home to praise the tough-on-drugs approach of Mexico and the U.S.
Contrary to what the media hype over "BC Bud" would have the public
believe, the vast majority of marijuana imported into the U.S. comes from
Mexico. The police state approach to public health problems is a proven
failure.

Consider the experience of the former land of the free and current record
holder in citizens incarcerated. Police searches on public transit,
drug-sniffing dogs in schools and random drug testing have led to a loss of
civil liberties in the United States, while failing miserably at preventing
marijuana use.

Based on findings that criminal records are inappropriate as health
interventions, 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 latest drug war fiasco to come out of the U.S. is "compassionate
coercion." This expansion of zero tolerance does not distinguish between
occasional use and chronic abuse. Jail sentences and open-ended drug
testing are applied exclusively to consumers of non-traditional drugs like
marijuana. Alcoholics and tobacco smokers need not fear President George W.
Bush's legendary "compassion."

Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death,
nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. Unfortunately,
marijuana represents the counterculture to misguided reactionaries intent
on legislating their version of morality. Canada should follow the lead of
Europe and Just Say No to the American Inquisition.

Robert Sharpe

Program Officer, Drug Policy Alliance, http://www.drugpolicy.org/

Washington, DC