Pubdate: Thu, 19 Jun 2008
Source: Desert Dispatch, The (Victorville CA)
Copyright: 2008 Desert Dispatch
Contact:  http://www.desertdispatch.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3218
Source: Desert Dispatch, The (Victorville CA)
Author: John Stossel
Note: John Stossel is co-anchor of ABC News' "20/20" and the author 
of "Myth, Lies, and Downright Stupidity," which is now out in paperback.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

DISPELLING MYTHS ABOUT DRUG USE

The other day, reading the New York Post's popular Page Six gossip 
page, I was surprised to find a picture of me, followed by the lines: 
"ABC'S John Stossel wants the government to stop interfering with 
your right to get high. ... The crowd went silent at his call to 
legalize hard drugs."

I had attended a Marijuana Policy Project event celebrating the New 
York State Assembly's passage of a medical-marijuana bill. (The bill 
hasn't passed the Senate.) I told the audience I thought it pathetic 
that the mere half passage of a bill to allow sick people to try a 
possible remedy would merit such a celebration. Of course medical 
marijuana should be legal. For adults, everything should be legal. 
I'm amazed that the health police are so smug in their opposition.

After years of reporting on the drug war, I'm convinced that this 
"war" does more harm than any drug.

Independent of that harm, adults ought to own our own bodies, so it's 
not intellectually honest to argue that "only marijuana" should be 
legal -- and only for certain sick people approved by the state. 
Every drug should be legal.

"How could you say such a ridiculous thing?" asked my assistant. 
"Heroin and cocaine have a permanent effect. If you do crack just 
once, you are automatically hooked. Legal hard drugs would create 
many more addicts. And that leads to more violence, homelessness, 
out-of-wedlock births, etc!"

Her diatribe is a good summary of the drug warriors' arguments. Most 
Americans probably agree with what she said.

But what most Americans believe is wrong.

Myth No. 1: Heroin and cocaine have a permanent effect.

Truth: There is no evidence of that.

In the 1980s, the press reported that "crack babies" were 
"permanently damaged." Rolling Stone, citing one study of just 23 
babies, claimed that crack babies "were oblivious to affection, automatons."

It simply wasn't true. There is no proof that crack babies do worse 
than anyone else in later life, according a review in the Journal of 
the American Medical Association.

Myth No. 2: If you do crack once, you are hooked.

Truth: Look at the numbers -- 15 percent of young adults have tried 
crack, but only 2 percent used it in the last month, according to the 
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. If crack is so 
addictive, why do most people who've tried it no longer use it?

People once said heroin was nearly impossible to quit, but during the 
Vietnam War, thousands of soldiers became addicted, and when they 
returned home, 85 percent quit within one year, according to the 
American Journal of Public Health.

People have free will. Most who use drugs eventually wise up and stop.

And most people who use drugs habitually live perfectly responsible 
lives, as Jacob Sullum pointed out in "Saying Yes."

Myth No. 3: Drugs cause crime.

Truth: The drug war causes the crime.

Few drug users hurt or rob people because they are high. Most of the 
crime occurs because the drugs are illegal and available only through 
a black market. Drug sellers arm themselves and form gangs because 
they cannot ask the police to protect their persons and property.

In turn, some buyers steal to pay the high black-market prices. The 
government says heroin, cocaine and nicotine are similarly addictive, 
and about half the people who both smoke cigarettes and use cocaine 
say smoking is at least as strong an urge. But no one robs 
convenience stores for Marlboros.

Alcohol prohibition created Al Capone and the Mafia. Drug prohibition 
is worse. It's corrupting whole countries and financing terrorism.

The Post wrote, "Stossel admitted his own 22-year-old daughter 
doesn't think (legalization) is a good idea."

But that's not what she said. My daughter argued that legal cocaine 
would probably lead to more cocaine use. And therefore probably 
abuse. I'm not so sure.

Banning drugs certainly hasn't kept young people from getting them. 
We can't even keep these drugs out of prisons. How do we expect to 
keep them out of America?

But let's assume my daughter is right, that legalization would lead 
to more experimentation and more addiction. I still say: Legal is better.

While drugs harm many, the drug war's black market harms more.

And most importantly, in a free country, adults should have the right 
to harm themselves.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom