Pubdate: Mon, 17 Apr 2006 Source: Port Hope Evening Guide (CN ON) Contact: 2006 Port Hope Evening Guide Website: http://www.northumberlandtoday.com/webapp/sitepages/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4147 Author: Kirk Muse LEGALIZE POT AND CONTROL GATEWAY I'm writing about your thoughtful editorial: "Longer sentences won't reduce crime" (April 10). 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 drug policies 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: http://www.drugwarfacts.org/thenethe.htm. And if tolerant drug policies caused more overall crime, especially violent crime, the Dutch would have much higher crime rates than the U.S. They do not. The Dutch murder rate is less than one-third the U.S. per capita murder rate and their rate of incarceration is about one-seventh the U.S. incarceration rate. In the Netherlands, marijuana is sold to adults without criminal sanctions in coffee shops. In the United States, marijuana is sold by criminals who often sell other, much more dangerous drugs, and who often offer free samples of the more dangerous drugs to their marijuana customers, thus creating the so-called gateway effect. Legalize, regulate and control the sale of marijuana and you close the gateway. Kirk Muse / Mesa, AZ