DRUGS ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM; ANOTHER PROBLEM IS THE LAW

In all the thousands of words printed to analyze the problems associated
with illegal drug use in "The Hidden Scourge" series, one word crucial to
understanding the whole situation went missing: prohibition.

Many of the ills described in the series are caused by prohibition, not
drugs themselves. The same things happened in 1920s America during alcohol
prohibition. The crime gangs that proliferated at that time can be compared
with the drug gangs who terrorize city street corners today.

Prohibition increases the actual danger of drug consumption, as it did in
the past. During alcohol prohibition, thousands died, and many others lost
their sight, after drinking wood alcohol from the black market.

Similarly, most "club drug" deaths described in the Herald's series were
caused by the ingestion of PMA. Victims likely believed they were taking
Ecstasy. Alcohol and Ecstasy hold their own dangers, but no one would
willingly drink wood alcohol, and few would consciously choose to take PMA.
However, because prohibition drives markets underground, consumers often
have no idea what they are consuming. Unfortunately, that doesn't
necessarily deter use.

Our most recent experience with drug prohibition shows that outlawed drugs
can explode in popularity well after they are prohibited. Ecstasy use was
relatively rare when it was prohibited in 1985, but millions of tablets are
now being imported to the U.S. weekly. This is typical of many outlawed
drugs - use increases after sales are banned.

One reason: prohibition makes the substance prohibited incredibly
profitable. The harder law enforcement attempts to suppress a drug, the
more profitable it becomes. Once the profits become apparent, more people
want to be part of the market and supply naturally expands. The idea of
"forbidden fruit," often bolstered by sensational media coverage, helps to
increase demand.

As the "Hidden Scourge" series noted, youth are not only buyers, they can
be sellers. Legal drugs like alcohol and tobacco are associated with plenty
of problems, but they do not create open-air markets where any youth can
sell and any youth can buy if they are willing to brave the violence.

Since participants in black markets have no recourse to law or courts when
disputes occur, violence is employed as a regulatory tool. Violent deaths
have occurred in the local Ecstasy trade, and in some cases, teens' lives
were lost.

Some readers will now be thinking, we can't just legalize drugs. And I
would not advocate the immediate abandonment of all drug laws. I do
believe, however, many better ways to approach drug problems exist beyond
absolute prohibition.

We could start by changing regulations for less dangerous drugs. As Jim
Slusher suggested in his column on the series, many people don't take drug
warnings seriously. This could be due to the credibility squandered by
anti-drug officials and the general media when they engage in reefer madness.

More resources are spent to enforce marijuana prohibition than any other
drug. More than 700,000 Americans were arrested for marijuana law
violations in the year 2000. That's more than the number of arrests for all
violent crimes combined during the same year - for a drug that is not
attributed to any human deaths. These absurdly misplaced priorities foster
disrespect not only for drug law, but law in general.

Other countries have relaxed some drug laws, and now they reap the
benefits. The Netherlands has a policy of tolerance for the sale of small
amounts of marijuana. The Dutch policy has realized its goal of separating
the market for less harmful drugs from the market for more harmful drugs,
like heroin. Youth heroin use is much less prevalent in the Netherlands
than it is here, in part because marijuana buyers are not exposed to the
black market for harder drugs.

The policy has not created a marijuana epidemic. Levels of marijuana use in
the Netherlands, for both adults and children, continue to be much lower
than they are in the U.S.

I am a parent and I don't wish to see any children harmed by drugs. We
could work toward reducing some drug-related harm through an honest
discussion of current drug policy. That discussion must include the word
prohibition and it must also acknowledge that viable alternatives exist.

Stephen Young of Roselle is a freelance writer and author of a book on the
drug war called "Maximizing Harm."