'WAR ON DRUGS' NEEDS MORE COMPETENT POLICIES

Competent policies on drug use are becoming increasingly important in
modern society. Because of advances in organic chemistry and the
globalization of the world economy, people are gaining greater access
to a larger number of mind-altering substances.

Creating a sensible system of regulation is necessary to combat the
harmful effects these drugs can have. When trying to formulate
potential policy, however, one unalterable fact must be taken into
account.

People always have had and always will have a desire to experiment
with altered states of consciousness. This desire is innate to the
functioning of the human brain, and no governmental policy will change
that. The universality of this is apparent in that every society and
culture in the world has known drug users. It is a fact people are
going to want to try mind-altering substances. People worldwide will
find access to various types of drugs. One drug, alcohol, has been
part of human culture for thousands of years, and eliminating it in
the modern era proved all but impossible.

In current U.S. drug policy, most mind-altering substances are
illegal, and violators are subject to harsh penalties. The goal of
this policy is to reduce the number of harmful drug users and to
alleviate the negative social consequences of drug use. Many instances
exist that legitimize having this goal because some drugs are
destructive to the people who use them and to society.

Despite this, our current policy has undesirable social consequences
as bad as or worse than the problems drug addicts cause directly.
Organized crime is the inevitable and unavoidable consequence of
America's current policy. Many individuals exist - and will always
exist - who are willing, though illegally and at a cost, to experience
the drug high. This creates a huge financial incentive for people to
smuggle and sell drugs. Competition between different organized
groups, as well as with the government, can and does lead to violent
crime.

Another problem with the current system is because the drug market
operates illegally, it is unregulated and these drugs are not held to
the quality standards to which legal pharmaceuticals are subject.
Poor-quality drugs can have a very damaging affect on users' bodies.

There is a better way to reduce the number of drug users in this
country, and it does not involve illegalizing drugs. Look at
Amsterdam, Netherlands, as a model of competent drug policy. It is
easy to see even though many drugs are more accessible there than in
the United States, countries like the Netherlands have significantly
fewer problems with drug-related crime and have a smaller percentage
of drug users.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Public Services, in
2001, 36.9 percent of people in the United States 12 years old and
older had experimented with marijuana, and 5.4 percent had used it in
the past month. According to the Trimbos Institute, in 2001, 17
percent of people in the Netherlands 12 years old and older had
experimented with marijuana, and 3 percent had used it in the past
month. Similar trends exist for other drugs like heroin and cocaine.

One aspect of Amsterdam's strategy comes in the form of separating the
markets for hard and soft drugs. Marijuana, alcohol and other
"soft-drugs" are widely available. People who casually use these soft
drugs have to go out of their way to find dealers of harder drugs.
This effectively limits the myth of the gateway drug.

Programs of support and rehabilitation are also widely available for
hard-drug users in an effort to educate, cure addiction and eventually
reintegrate users back into society.

In the United States, all soft drugs, such as marijuana, should be
legalized to separate the larger markets for these drugs from the
markets for harder drugs like heroin and cocaine. In addition to
replicating the effects of easy access in Amsterdam, this
significantly would reduce the amount of money drug dealers would be
able to make and thus limit the amount of organized crime.

Another competent policy is the decriminalization of all drugs. People
who use drugs do not directly hurt other people with their drug use.
They do not belong in prisons with rapists and murderers. To put them
in prison is cruel and unusual punishment. More importantly,
decriminalization in Amsterdam did not result in higher rates of use
for any drug.

The billions of dollars spent on the failed, impossible-to-win and
increasingly difficult "War on Drugs" should be reallocated to an
expansive support system to educate and rehabilitate drug users. We
should persuade the people to stay drug-free and help those who want
to clean up. We should not strip them of their freedom to make their
own choices and exact cruel and unusual punishments to people who have
done nothing to harm anyone.