Pubdate: Sat, 20 May 2006
Source: Now, The (Surrey, CN BC)
Copyright: 2006 The Now Newspaper
Contact: http://www.thenownewspaper.com/forms/lettersform.html
Website: http://www.thenownewspaper.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1462
Author: Jeff Harrison

PROHIBITION OF DRUGS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH HEALTH

The Editor,

When we consider the adverse effects of a drug on an individual and a 
community, a distinction must be made between the effects of the 
actual drug and the effects brought on by prohibition of the drug.

The use of any particular drug will have some side effects such as 
brain damage, lung damage or maybe a rash; these are all symptoms of 
the actual drug. Things like theft, gang violence, the spread of 
disease and organized crime are all results of prohibition.

The fact still remains that no one wants their child using drugs and 
many people feel that prohibition lowers drug use. I am not going to 
claim I understand the forces governing drug use but in the U.S., 
which has an extremely strict drug policy, the lifetime prevalence of 
marijuana use in 2002 was 36.9 per cent. When this is compared to the 
Netherlands, which has legalized marijuana, they achieve only a 
lifetime prevalence of 17 per cent. So considering the two ends of 
the drug enforcement spectrum it seems that legality has little to do 
with frequency of use.

Drugs aren't made illegal because of their consequences on health; 
historically, illegalization has almost exclusively occurred because 
of social and political pressures. This is illustrated by our current 
tobacco laws and the devastating effect tobacco has on health.

I want, as everyone does, what is best for our community and I do not 
believe that our current system is anywhere near achieving this. 
Legalization has many different forms, several of which can be seen 
in the current regulation of drugs from caffeine and alcohol to 
morphine. No matter what route legalization would take, one of the 
most beneficial outcomes would be that gangs would no longer be 
profiting from these substances and would have no reason to continue 
pushing them on our children.

Jeff Harrison, Surrey
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