Pubdate: Sat, 02 Oct 2010
Source: Nanaimo News Bulletin (CN BC)
Copyright: 2010 Robert Sharpe
Contact:  http://www.nanaimobulletin.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/948
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n781/a04.html
Author: Robert Sharpe

WAR ON DRUGS HELPS ORGANIZED CRIMINALS

To the Editor,

Re: More inmates worsen jail situation, Wright Turn, Sept. 25.

When it comes to drugs, mandatory minimum prison sentences are proven
failures.

If harsh sentences deterred illicit drug use, Canada's southern
neighbour would be a drug-free America. That's not the case.

The U.S. drug war has done little other give the land of the free the
highest incarceration rate in the world.

The drug war is a cure worse than the disease. Drug prohibition
finances organized crime at home and terrorism abroad, which is then
used to justify increased drug-war spending.

It's time to end this madness and instead treat all substance abuse,
legal or otherwise, as the public health problem it is.

Thanks to public education efforts, tobacco use has declined
considerably in recent years. Apparently mandatory minimum prison
sentences, civil asset forfeiture, random drug testing and racial
profiling are not necessarily the most cost-effective means of
discouraging unhealthy choices.

Drug abuse is bad, but the drug war is worse.

Robert Sharpe

Common Sense for Drug Policy

Washington, D.C.  
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