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." - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D