Pubdate: Mon, 24 Apr 2000
Source: Business Week (US)
Copyright: 2000 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Contact:  1221 Avenue of the Americas, 43rd Floor, New York, NY 10020
Fax: (212) 512-6458
Website: http://www.businessweek.com/
Author: Linda Bayer
Note: Linda Bayer Strategic Analyst White House Office of National Drug 
Control Policy Washington

UNETHICAL REASONS FOR LEGALIZING DRUGS

Robert Barro's suggestion that we legalize drugs in order to tax them is 
not surprising from a writer who also recommends that Colombia "temporarily 
suspend rights and democratic practices" because the country supposedly has 
"too much democracy" and needs to "reimpose law and order" ("To beat 
Colombia's guerrillas, legalize drugs in the U.S.," Economic Viewpoint, 
Mar. 13).  Exacerbating misery to make money from it is unethical and 
illogical.

As Robert L. Dupont, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Georgetown 
University's School of Medicine, explains in his book, 'The Selfish Brain: 
Learning From Addiction': "It does not require an economic genius to 
recognize that prohibition is now working effectively to reduce the total 
costs generated by such drugs as marijuana, cocaine, and 
heroin.  Furthermore, the human suffering reflected in the health-care 
costs would rise dramatically if those drugs were legally available, as 
alcohol and tobacco are now, because the number of users would increase 
from the current 12 million [1997] to a number similar to the 50 million 
tobacco users or even the 103 million users of alcohol."

Dr. Dupont also notes that U.S. taxes at all levels came to $13 billion for 
alcohol in 1992.  By comparison, that same year, alcohol abuse cost the 
U.S. $148 billion, in terms of the health burden and other expenses, 
according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Trading sickness and 
death for government revenues is as financially spurious as it is morally 
bankrupt.

On a purely economic level, tax revenues derived from drugs wouldn't offset 
the increased costs generated by greater abuse.  If high taxes were levied 
on drugs to discourage use, the illicit drug traffic would persist in an 
attempt to evade the high taxes.  Alcohol and tobacco are much more widely 
used than illegal drugs not because they are "superior" drugs but because 
they are legal and widely available. Legalization would raise the number of 
drug users and the harm caused by drugs.  For this reason, the majority of 
Americans support keeping dangerous drugs against the law.

Linda Bayer, Strategic Analyst White House Office of National Drug Control 
Policy Washington
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jo-D