DRUG WAR WORKING AS POORLY AS PROHIBITION

I respectfully disagree with your Feb. 26 editorial, "Don't gut drug
squad." Throwing more money at the drug problem is no solution. The drug
war has a clear historical precedent in America's disastrous experiment
with alcohol prohibition during the early 1900s.

With alcohol prohibition repealed, liquor producers no longer gun each down
in drive-by shootings, nor do consumers go blind drinking unregulated
bathtub gin.

Drug policies modeled after alcohol prohibition have given rise to a
youth-oriented black market. Illegal drug dealers don't ID for age, but
they do recruit minors immune to adult sentences. So much for protecting
the children.

While U.S. politicians continue to use the drug war's inherent failure to
justify its intensification, European countries are embracing harm
reduction, a public health alternative based on the principle that both
drug use and drug prohibition have the potential to cause harm.

Examples of harm reduction include needle exchange programs to stop the
spread of HIV, marijuana regulation aimed at separating the hard and soft
drug markets and drug treatment alternatives that do not require
incarceration as a prerequisite.

Ironically, fear of appearing soft on crime compels many U.S. politicians
to support a drug policy that ultimately subsidizes organized crime, while
failing miserably at preventing use.

ROBERT SHARPE, Program Officer

Drug Policy Alliance

Washington, D.C.