Pubdate: Sun, 24 Jun 2001
Source: Oklahoman, The (OK)
Copyright: 2001 The Oklahoma Publishing Co
Contact:  http://www.oklahoman.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/318
Author:  Robert Sharpe
Note: Sharpe is a program officer with the Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy 
Foundation, a group that favors decriminalization of marijuana

A BETTER WAY

To The Editor:

Tom Hedrick ("Point of View," June 17) claims the government's $185 million 
ad campaign is a cost-effective means of reducing adolescent drug use. 
Hedrick, of course, stands to benefit financially from this taxpayer-funded 
campaign. With overdose deaths and incarceration rates at record levels, 
Hedrick's claims that adolescent drug use has gone down (thanks to the ad 
campaign) is dubious at best. Surveys that rely on self-reporting are 
useless in this age of zero tolerance. Honesty could very well result in 
drug-sniffing dogs and locker searches at school.

The costly drug war is part of the problem, not the solution. With alcohol 
prohibition repealed, liquor producers no longer gun each down in drive-by 
shootings, nor do consumers go blind drinking unregulated bathtub gin. The 
crime, corruption and overdose deaths attributed to drugs are all direct 
results of drug prohibition. Drug policies designed to protect children 
have given rise to a thriving black market with no age controls. This is 
not to say that all drugs should be legal.

The Netherlands has successfully reduced overall 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. Although marijuana is relatively 
harmless compared to alcohol -- pot has never been shown to cause an 
overdose death -- marijuana prohibition is deadly.

Illegal marijuana provides the black market contacts that introduce youth 
to addictive drugs like meth. This "gateway" is the direct result of a 
fundamentally flawed policy. Taxing and regulating marijuana is a 
cost-effective alternative to spending tens of billions annually on a 
failed drug war.

Robert Sharpe
Washington, D.C.
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