Pubdate: Mon, 11 Feb 2002
Source: Daily Herald (IL)
Copyright: 2002 The Daily Herald Company
Contact:  http://www.dailyherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/107
Author: Stephen Young
Note: Stephen Young of Roselle is a freelance writer and author of a book 
on the drug war called "Maximizing Harm."

DRUGS ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM; ANOTHER PROBLEM IS THE LAW

In all the thousands of words printed to analyze the problems associated 
with illegal drug use in "The Hidden Scourge" series, one word crucial to 
understanding the whole situation went missing: prohibition.

Many of the ills described in the series are caused by prohibition, not 
drugs themselves. The same things happened in 1920s America during alcohol 
prohibition. The crime gangs that proliferated at that time can be compared 
with the drug gangs who terrorize city street corners today.

Prohibition increases the actual danger of drug consumption, as it did in 
the past. During alcohol prohibition, thousands died, and many others lost 
their sight, after drinking wood alcohol from the black market.

Similarly, most "club drug" deaths described in the Herald's series were 
caused by the ingestion of PMA. Victims likely believed they were taking 
Ecstasy. Alcohol and Ecstasy hold their own dangers, but no one would 
willingly drink wood alcohol, and few would consciously choose to take PMA. 
However, because prohibition drives markets underground, consumers often 
have no idea what they are consuming. Unfortunately, that doesn't 
necessarily deter use.

Our most recent experience with drug prohibition shows that outlawed drugs 
can explode in popularity well after they are prohibited. Ecstasy use was 
relatively rare when it was prohibited in 1985, but millions of tablets are 
now being imported to the U.S. weekly. This is typical of many outlawed 
drugs - use increases after sales are banned.

One reason: prohibition makes the substance prohibited incredibly 
profitable. The harder law enforcement attempts to suppress a drug, the 
more profitable it becomes. Once the profits become apparent, more people 
want to be part of the market and supply naturally expands. The idea of 
"forbidden fruit," often bolstered by sensational media coverage, helps to 
increase demand.

As the "Hidden Scourge" series noted, youth are not only buyers, they can 
be sellers. Legal drugs like alcohol and tobacco are associated with plenty 
of problems, but they do not create open-air markets where any youth can 
sell and any youth can buy if they are willing to brave the violence.

Since participants in black markets have no recourse to law or courts when 
disputes occur, violence is employed as a regulatory tool. Violent deaths 
have occurred in the local Ecstasy trade, and in some cases, teens' lives 
were lost.

Some readers will now be thinking, we can't just legalize drugs. And I 
would not advocate the immediate abandonment of all drug laws. I do 
believe, however, many better ways to approach drug problems exist beyond 
absolute prohibition.

We could start by changing regulations for less dangerous drugs. As Jim 
Slusher suggested in his column on the series, many people don't take drug 
warnings seriously. This could be due to the credibility squandered by 
anti-drug officials and the general media when they engage in reefer madness.

More resources are spent to enforce marijuana prohibition than any other 
drug. More than 700,000 Americans were arrested for marijuana law 
violations in the year 2000. That's more than the number of arrests for all 
violent crimes combined during the same year - for a drug that is not 
attributed to any human deaths. These absurdly misplaced priorities foster 
disrespect not only for drug law, but law in general.

Other countries have relaxed some drug laws, and now they reap the 
benefits. The Netherlands has a policy of tolerance for the sale of small 
amounts of marijuana. The Dutch policy has realized its goal of separating 
the market for less harmful drugs from the market for more harmful drugs, 
like heroin. Youth heroin use is much less prevalent in the Netherlands 
than it is here, in part because marijuana buyers are not exposed to the 
black market for harder drugs.

The policy has not created a marijuana epidemic. Levels of marijuana use in 
the Netherlands, for both adults and children, continue to be much lower 
than they are in the U.S.

I am a parent and I don't wish to see any children harmed by drugs. We 
could work toward reducing some drug-related harm through an honest 
discussion of current drug policy. That discussion must include the word 
prohibition and it must also acknowledge that viable alternatives exist.

Stephen Young of Roselle is a freelance writer and author of a book on the 
drug war called "Maximizing Harm."
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