D.C. DRUG EXPERT AGREES WITH MAYOR OWEN

To the editor;

Allen Garr's Mar. 27th column on mayor Philip Owen's pragmatic approach to
pot notes that the mayor's stance may earn him public support, but will
likely cost him some political capital.

Apparently, tough-on-drugs politicians don't see the value in undermining
organized crime by taxing and regulating the sale of marijuana to adults.
Decriminalization acknowledges the social reality of marijuana use and
frees users from the stigma of life-shattering criminal records. What's
really needed is a regulated market with age controls.

Separating the hard and soft drug markets is critical. As long as marijuana
remains illegal and distributed by organized crime, consumers will continue
to come into contact with sellers of hard drugs like cocaine. Current drug
policy is a gateway policy. Drug policy reform may send the wrong message
to children, but I like to think the children themselves are more important
than the message.

Opportunistic tough-on-drugs politicians who depend on hysterical anti-drug
claims to literally scare up votes would no doubt disagree.

Robert Sharpe, Program Officer Drug Policy Alliance Washington, DC