DRUG POLICIES

To the editor:

It is refreshing to read of a recently proposed public health approach to
drug use in Kansas. European countries, especially the Netherlands and the
Swiss Confederation, have been developing a public health approach to drug
usage for 10 years and more.

There are considerable benefits from taking a public health approach to
drug users. The Swiss have seen many former drug users now employed. The
number of deaths from drug overdose is down about half. The health of drug
users is improved. Now other west European countries are following their lead.

Like the proposed change by the Kansas Sentencing Commission, hard drugs
remain illegal, and subject to police repression. On the other hand the
Swiss "Federal Decree on the medical prescription of heroin was approved in
a popular vote (about two-thirds in favor) on 13 June 1999." (www.dfi.
admin.ch) The Swiss found that hard core addicts make more successful and
lasting change when THEY finally decide on the step to drug treatment.

The Swiss are looking toward changes in their laws to make consumption and
growing of cannabis products legal. Likewise in October 2001, the British
home secretary, David Blunkett, announced a change in policy. British
"police will lose the power to arrest the 90,000 people a year who are
currently charged with possession offenses." (The Guardian, 10-24-01) The
"coffee houses" in Holland where cannabis is legally sold and used are
well-known, and sometimes shocking to our Puritan sensibilities.

I hope our Legislature sees the benefits of a public health approach to
drugs. Also I hope the legislators see the need for adequate appropriations
to implement real drug treatment programs in Kansas.

Mark Larson,

Lawrence