Pubdate: Tue, 19 Jun 2001
Source: USA Today (US)
Copyright: 2001 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc
Contact:  http://www.usatoday.com/news/nfront.htm
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/466
Author: Robert Sharpe
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?186 (Oxycontin)
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/alert/0209.html

ENFORCEMENT FEEDS PROBLEM

Donnie Marshall of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) claims 
in the Opposing View that the public will be protected from injury or 
death associated with the diversion and abuse of OxyContin. That 
worries me. The DEA has a long history of inadvertently fueling crime 
and then using the resulting violence to justify ever-expanding 
budgets.

Prior to the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914, narcotics users did not 
prostitute themselves or commit crimes to buy drugs. There was no 
need to do so. Drugs were readily available and sold at cost. Only 
after drug prohibition was instituted did the price of drugs 
skyrocket.

Like the DEA, organized crime is financially dependent on a 
never-ending drug war without victory. Interdiction efforts make drug 
trafficking more profitable by limiting supply while demand remains 
constant. Our tax dollars effectively subsidize a thriving black 
market.

When desperate addicts are faced with rising street prices, they 
commit more crimes to feed desperate habits. If OxyContin abuse is 
indeed an epidemic, we can expect a massive crime wave now that the 
DEA has made OxyContin a priority. Simply put, law enforcement is 
part of the problem, not the solution.

The criminalization of health problems such as addiction only makes 
things worse.

When confessing to an illness is tantamount to confessing to criminal 
activity, addicts are compelled to suffer in silence. I think it is 
safe to say that the turnout at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings would 
be rather low if alcoholism were an illness pursued with the zeal of 
zero tolerance. The drug war is a prime example of a cure that is 
worse than the disease.

Robert Sharpe

Washington, D.C.
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