Pubdate: Sun, 06 Feb 2005 Source: Monitor, The (McAllen, TX) Copyright: 2005 The Monitor Contact: http://www.themonitor.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1250 Author: Kirk Muse Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05.n169.a01.html WAR ON DRUGS ISN'T WORKING To the editor: I'm writing about Robert Sharpe's outstanding letter ("Marijuana should be legal," Jan. 28). I'd like to add that if tough-on-drugs policies worked, the quixotic goal of a drug-free America would have been reached a long time ago. And if tolerant marijuana laws created more drug use, the Netherlands would have much higher drug usage rates than the United States. They do not. In fact, the Dutch use marijuana and other recreational drugs at much lower rates than Americans do. See the Web site: www.drugwarfacts.org/thenethe.htm. No other nation on the planet has spent more of its resources fighting drug abuse nor imprisoned more of its citizens for drug law violations than the United States. Yet no other nation has been less successful than the United States in solving its drug abuse problems. What we are doing regarding our drug abuse problem is not working. It's time to do something different - substantially different. Kirk Muse Mesa - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin