Pubdate: Thu, 27 Jan 2005
Source: Ipswich Chronicle (MA)
Copyright: 2005 CommunitysNewspapers, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.townonline.com/ipswich/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3663
Author: Tim Kuhn
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n136/a07.html

A LOOK AT THE DRUG WAR

This is a letter in response to the recent article "The horrors of heroin."

Anybody who believes the war on drugs is being won should look at the local 
headlines. Heroin is now cheaper than marijuana even though it is 
incredibly more dangerous. We do need more education and more treatment. 
But ask yourself why is it that, while the drug war has been going on for 
decades and the budget grown exponentially, we have ever more young people 
dying of heroin in our neighborhoods? The answer is simple: the war on 
drugs has escalated drug use and production.

Harm reduction, cannabis decriminalization and the Dutch model of drug 
management have been beaten on tirelessly by our government and "moral 
crusaders." These people have statistics and arguments for keeping the drug 
war in place. To see they are wrong just look around you and ask your kids 
about drug use among their peers. Take a look at production, corruption and 
crime in Afghanistan, Mexico and Columbia. If drugs are complicit with 
terrorism it is because they are underground and very profitable. It has 
been estimated that it is $400 to $500 billion a year industry generating 
huge untaxed profits. Drug lords do not want the drug war to end! One of 
the biggest government programs doesn't want it to end either. Look at 
opiate use throughout history and overseas in more progressive countries 
and you will see there is less counter culture glamour and less fatality.

Our jails are filled with drug offenders. We need to educate young people 
about the dangers of drugs. But if teens know that marijuana is not so 
dangerous, how can we get through to them about heroin if we equate the 
two? The gateway model just creates a reverse psychology. We need more 
treatment programs but what we need most is a more sensible approach to the 
drug problem. Addicts should see doctors, not prison bars. People using 
drugs should feel safe calling paramedics - blaming doctors for patient 
privacy misses the entire point. Locking up low level dealers for life 
doesn't work. Law enforcement does a heroic job but sadly it does not fix 
the overall problem. Supply and demand do not change and marketing by 
criminals just becomes more vile and effective. I've learned two lessons in 
my life the hard way: avoid drugs and don't support the drug war.

Tim Kuhn

Argilla Road 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake