Pubdate: Fri, 30 Mar 2001
Source: Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
Copyright: 2001 The Sydney Morning Herald
Contact:  http://www.smh.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/441
Author: Ted Kroiter
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n535/a02.html

PARENTS AND PROHIBITION WON'T FIX DRUG CALAMITY

Your correspondent Athol Moffitt (Herald, March 27), shows a poor grasp of 
the realities of drug use. He calls for dissuasion of the young by parents.

But parents are unlikely to be able to persuade their charges that while 
the unhealthy habits of many citizens are quite legal, any experimentation 
with certain substances should never be undertaken.

When the time comes, the children will take in information from many other 
sources. Under prohibition, these other "sources" are highly distorted, a 
cause of great evil.

It is a much better long-term strategy to teach responsibility by 
completely open information, advice and example. You do not teach 
responsibility by prohibiting something. Prohibition teaches that some 
people, perhaps the majority, are against the use of certain drugs and that 
you have to be very careful to avoid penalties. The focus is on the 
calculus of whether the pleasure is worth the possible penalty at law, not 
on whether it is worth the health dangers.

Prohibition ensures that many people die unnecessarily. It stunts the 
development of a robust sense of responsibility. It is the wrong framework 
for attacking the evils of drug addiction.

Ted Kroiter, Newtown, March 28.
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