Pubdate: Wed, 02 Oct 2002
Source: Big Sandy News, The (KY)
Copyright: 2002 The Big Sandy News
Contact:  http://www.bigsandynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1975
Author: Jay R. Cavanaugh, Ph.D.
Note: Title supplied by MAP editor.

PROSECUTION WON'T WORK

Editor:

My initial appointment to the California State Board of Pharmacy was 
prompted by a 60 minutes show on drug prescribing doctors (termed 
"croakers") way back in late 1979 or early 1980. I served on the Board for 
ten years helping to coordinate strike actions against those diverting 
pharmaceutical drugs. The fiction that is being continued is that we can 
stamp out drug abuse and related problems through vigorous prosecution and 
little else. By not dealing with societal and family problems that lead to 
drug abuse and related violence the stage is set for banging ones head 
against the wall and when that doesn't work just bang harder. Kentucky's 
"Promise" Project is not tomorrow's America; it is yesterday and today's 
America. Just look at intrusive school drug testing programs, locker and 
book bag searches, random stops of motor vehicles, no-knock warrants, and 
all the other abandonments of Constitutional Rights that have characterized 
our nation in the past twenty to thirty years. The problem in reducing 
demand for truly dangerous drugs is that our credibility in the "drug war" 
has been ruined by the inclusion of cannabis, a relatively innocuous 
substance less harmful than either tobacco or alcohol. The net result of 
vigorous prosecution as opposed to harm reduction is to simply raise the 
price of illicit substances and provide a bonus to drug traffickers.

Jay R. Cavanaugh, Ph.D.

West Hills, CA
- ---
MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager