DRUG PROHIBITION

Public Education Paying Off

Editor, The Gazette:

Columnist Paul Willcocks is absolutely right about the need for a more
effective drug strategy.

While drug prohibition has done little other than subsidize organized
crime and violence, legal tobacco use has declined considerably in
recent years. Public education efforts are paying off.

Apparently mandatory-minimum prison sentences, civil-asset forfeiture,
random drug-testing and racial profiling are not necessarily the most
cost-effective means of discouraging unhealthy choices.

Drug abuse is bad, but the drug war is worse.

ROBERT SHARPE

MPA Policy Analyst

Common Sense for Drug Policy

Washington, D.C.