Pubdate: Wed, 13 Jun 2001
Source: Marysville Globe, The (WA)
Copyright: 2001 Marysville Globe/Arlington Times
Contact:  http://www.mapinc.org/media/1288
Author: Robert Sharpe, M.P.A.
Note: Robert Sharpe is a Program Officer, The Lindesmith Center -- Drug
Policy Foundation, Washington, DC
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n975/a05.html

SCHEER IS RIGHT

In his excellent May 30th column Robert Scheer rightfully criticizes the 
Bush administration for giving $43 million to Afghanistan's brutal Taliban 
regime in exchange for what is sure to be a short-lived commitment to 
eradicating the poverty-stricken country's opium crop.

Apparently the self-professed champions of the free market in Congress are 
incapable of applying basic economic principles to drug policy. When the 
supply of illicit drugs is successfully limited in one region while demand 
remains constant, illicit crop cultivation becomes more profitable else-where.

When Peru's autocratic former president Alberto Fujimori succeeded in 
partially eliminating the Peruvian coca crop, production skyrocketed in 
Colombia. Creating a global welfare state in which every developing country 
is paid not to grow illicit crops is a rather expensive proposition.

The Bush administration needs to drop the drug war hysteria and consider 
the more pragmatic policies of European countries. Despite dramatically 
lower per capita spending on the drug problem, the Netherlands has 
successfully reduced over-all drug use by replacing marijuana prohibition 
with regulation. Dutch rates of drug use are significantly lower than U.S. 
rates in every category. Separating the hard and soft drug markets and 
establishing age controls for marijuana has proven more effective than zero 
tolerance. Taxing and regulating marijuana is a cost-effective alternative 
to spending tens of billions annually on a failed drug war.

Robert Sharpe, M.P.A.

Program Officer

The Lindesmith Center -- Drug Policy Foundation

Washington, DC
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager