Pubdate: Tue, 16 May 2006 Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC) Copyright: 2006 The Vancouver Sun Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477 Author: Jack A. Cole Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction) READERS URGE FORWARD-THINKING SOLUTIONS TO THE PROBLEMS OF DRUG ABUSE Three cheers for Mayor Sam Sullivan who is courageously working to apply harm reduction policies that alleviate some of the terrible unintended consequences of a war on drugs. In my 26 years as a U.S. cop, 12 doing drug work, I came to realize what should have been obvious the first day I pinned on a badge: Drug prohibition will never work. After 36 years of fighting the war on drugs with a budget of more than $1 trillion, my country has quadrupled our prison population in the last 20 years. Every year we arrest another 1.7 million people for non-violent drug offences. Despite all this money so ill-spent and all those ruined lives, today drugs are cheaper, more potent, and far easier for our children to get than they were in 1970 when I started buying them as an undercover officer. According to the U.S. government, four million people used an illegal drug before the war started; by 2001, the numbers had increased to 110 million. That is the very essence of a failed public policy. Jack A. Cole Executive Director Law Enforcement Against Prohibition Medford, Mass. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman