Pubdate: Tue, 27 Sep 2011
Source: Parksville Qualicum Beach News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2011 Black Press
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/5n7vJzqp
Website: http://drugsense.org/url/zLXtMKI5
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1361
Author: Robert Sharpe, Policy Analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy 
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v11/n592/a05.html

PROHIBITION JUST DOES NOT WORK

This letter is in regards to your editorial in the last paper (The
News, Sept. 23).

When it comes to drugs, mandatory minimum prison sentences are proven
failures. If harsh penalties deterred illicit drug use, Canada's
southern neighbor would be a drug-free America. That's not the case.
The U.S. drug war has done little other than give the land of the free
the highest incarceration rate in the world.

If the goal is to discourage unhealthy choices, there are
cost-effective alternatives to never-ending drug war.

Thanks to public education, legal tobacco use has declined
considerably, without any need to criminalize smokers or further
enrich drug cartels through tobacco prohibition.

Robert Sharpe

Washington, D.C.
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MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.