Pubdate: Sat, 12 Mar 2005
Source: New Scientist (UK)
Copyright: New Scientist, RBI Limited 2005
Contact:  http://www.newscientist.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/294

US WAR ON DRUGS A 'TRAGIC FAILURE'

THE US War on Drugs that is run from Washington DC is a "tragic failure" 
and should be wrested away from the feds and devolved to state level. So 
says an influential coalition of lawyers, doctors and church leaders in 
Washington state that is pressing for radical changes in drug policy.

Last week one of the coalition's members, the Seattle-based King County Bar 
Association, published a 146-page report recommending that the state should 
control production and distribution of psychoactive drugs such as 
marijuana, cocaine and heroin. It has long argued that drug problems should 
be seen primarily as a public health issue, rather than a criminal justice 
problem - and hence a matter for state rather than federal government.

The association is hoping that Washington state will pass a law to 
establish a commission on the problem. Around a dozen other states are 
working on similar proposals.

Despite spending more than $45 billion over the past 25 years and 
increasing the numbers of people imprisoned for drug offences more than 
tenfold, the federal strategy has failed to curb drug use, the coalition 
says. Drugs are cheaper and easier to get than ever, it adds.
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