Pubdate: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON) Copyright: 2008 The Ottawa Citizen Contact: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/letters.html Website: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326 Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n691/a07.html Author: Harvey Davey Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/gardner.htm WE MUST CHUCK FAILED DRUG SOLUTIONS Re: The fly on the elephant, July 20. In his book, Risk: The Science and Politics of Fear, columnist Dan Gardner wrote: "To protect ourselves against unreasoning fear, we must wake up (the) Head and ... We must learn to think hard." As a journalist, Mr. Gardner has been demonstrating for years that he practises what he preaches. Some of us thought he had made a convincing case in his Citizen series Losing the War on Drugs. However, his research and hard thinking then and now have not dented the "drugs kill" and "zero tolerance" sound bites of the prohibitionists. They require no hard thought. They ignore anecdotal, historical and scientific evidence that is irrefutable. Anyone who has had the devastating experience of knowing a chemically dependent person, knows that the war on drugs has and is failing. Anyone who has examined the history of Prohibition knows that it created more problems and solved none. Anyone who reads the scientific data on drug use, the reasons for use and the consequences of criminalizing use knows that spending money on enforcing our unenforceable laws is cost ineffective and counter-productive. Drug policy is, as Mr. Gardner points out, an enormous mess. Fixing the mess will require politicians, police and care givers to think hard. More importantly, it is going to require the citizenry to think hard about the issue of drugs. It will require that we stop taking the easy way out, chuck the slogans and put the sound bites in a museum of failed solutions. We have failed with prevention, prohibition and enforcement. That is why there is a mess. Harvey Davey, Ottawa - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake