Pubdate: Mon, 26 Feb 2001 Source: Quad-City Times (IA) Copyright: 2001 Quad-City Times Contact: 500 E. Third St., Davenport, IA 52801 Fax: (319) 383-2370 Feedback: http://www.qctimes.com/write_edletter/writeletter.html Website: http://www.qctimes.com/ Author: Robert Sharpe Note: Robert Sharpe is Program Officer at the Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation NETHERLANDS PROVES THE FOLLY OF ZERO-TOLERANCE DRUG POLICY Increasing Penalties For Methamphetamine Production, As Proposed In Illinois, Is Not The Answer. Illinois' incarceration rate will no doubt rise, and possibly taxes as well, but as long as there is a demand for meth, there will be a supply. There are cost-effective alternatives to the failed drug war that do not involve legalizing meth. Despite dramatically lower per-capita spending on the drug problem, the Netherlands has successfully reduced overall drug use by replacing marijuana prohibition with regulation. Separating the hard and soft drug markets and establishing controls for age has proven more effective than zero tolerance. Dutch rates of drug use are significantly lower than U.S. rates in every category. As the most popular illicit drug in America, marijuana provides the black market contacts that introduce users to hard drugs. The "gateway" status ascribed to marijuana is the direct result of a fundamentally flawed policy. Given that marijuana is arguably safer than alcohol, it makes no sense to perpetuate policies that finance organized crime and facilitate the use of drugs like meth. Unfortunately for Americans, our leaders are more prone to counterproductive preaching that cost-effective pragmatism. A dated comparison of Dutch vs. American rates of drug use can be found at: http://www.netherlands-embassy.org/c_drugstat.html. More recent figures can be found at: http://www.drugwarfacts.org/thenethe.htm. (Robert Sharpe is Program Officer at The Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation, 4455 Connecticut Ave N.W., Suite B-500, Washington, DC 20008-2328. E-mail: http://www.drug-policy.org) - --- MAP posted-by: Josh Sutcliffe