Pubdate: Mon, 05 May 2003
Source: Tuscaloosa News, The (AL)
Copyright: 2003 The Tuscaloosa News
Contact:  http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1665
Author: Robert Sharpe
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n613/a06.html

CHOOSE BETWEEN FREE AND 'DRUG-FREE'

So Bibb County has turned to drug-sniffing dogs to prevent residents from 
making unhealthy choices.

Throughout the nation, the steady rise in the use of warrantless police 
searches, drug-sniffing dogs and random drug testing has led to a loss of 
civil liberties in America, while failing miserably at preventing drug use.

Based on findings that criminal records are inappropriate as health 
interventions and ineffective as deterrents, a majority of European Union 
countries have decriminalized marijuana.

Despite marijuana prohibition and perhaps because of forbidden fruit 
appeal, lifetime use of marijuana is higher in the U.S. than any European 
country.

The drug war threatens the integrity of a country founded on the concept of 
limited government.

The United States now has the highest incarceration rate in the world, in 
large part due to the war on some drugs.

At an average cost of $25,071 per inmate annually, maintaining the world's 
largest prison system can hardly be considered fiscally conservative.

America can either be a free country or a "drug-free" country, but not both.

It's not possible to wage a moralistic war against consensual vices unless 
privacy is completely eliminated, along with the Constitution. Drug abuse 
is bad, but the zero tolerance drug war is worse.

Robert Sharpe

Program Officer

Drug Policy Alliance

Washington, D.C.
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