AMERICA CAN BE EITHER FREE OR 'DRUG-FREE,' BUT NOT BOTH

According to a Nov. 21 article, the federal government presented the
Kanawha County Sheriff's Department with a $10,328.36 check for their help
in a drug investigation. The financial incentives created by civil asset
forfeiture laws create a dangerous precedent. Police can confiscate cars,
cash and homes without bothering to charge owners with a crime.

Vague allegations of drug trafficking don't justify turning what should be
protectors of the peace into financial predators.

The drug war threatens the integrity of a country founded on the concept of
limited government. Police searches on public transit, drug-sniffing dogs
in schools, and random drug testing have led to a loss of civil liberties
while failing miserably at preventing drug use.

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 United States than any
European country.

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.

It's not possible to wage a moralistic war against consensual vices unless
privacy is completely eliminated, along with the Constitution. America can
be a free country or a "drug-free" country, but not both.

The results of a comparative study of European and U.S. rates of drug use
can be found at http://www.monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/espad_pr.pdf.

Robert Sharpe

Washington, D.C.

Sharpe is program officer for the Drug Policy Alliance,
http://www.drugpolicy.org. Monitoring the Future is run by the University
of Michigan and funded with U.S. government grants.