Pubdate: Wed, 16 Jan 2002
Source: Island Packet (SC)
Copyright: 2002,sThe Island Packet
Contact:  http://www.islandpacket.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1514
Author: Robert Sharpe

DRUG POLICY NEEDS CHANGE

To The Packet:

Thank you for raising awareness of the Higher Education Act's denial of 
student loans to youths convicted of drug offenses in your Jan. 11 editorial.

Anyone born into a wealthy family need not fear the impact of the act. 
Instead of empowering at-risk students with a college degree, it limits 
career opportunities and increases the likelihood that those affected will 
resort to crime. Speaking of crime, convicted rapists and murderers are 
still eligible for federal student loans.

As for "drug-related" crime, there is a reason liquor producers no longer 
terrorize cities with deadly turf battles. Alcohol prohibition ended in 
1933 and with it the inflated black market profits that drove mobsters to 
kill each other. While U.S. politicians ignore the historical precedent, 
Europeans are embracing harm reduction, a public health alternative based 
on the principle that both drug use and drug prohibition have the potential 
to cause harm.

The drug war's burden on American taxpayers gets higher every year as more 
and more drug users and dealers are incarcerated for consensual vices. Drug 
use continues unabated as replacement dealers immediately step in to reap 
outrageous black market profits. At an average cost of $25,071 per inmate 
annually, maintaining the highest incarceration rate in the world can 
hardly be considered fiscally conservative.

Robert Sharpe

Program Officer

The Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation

  Washington, D.C.
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MAP posted-by: Beth