Pubdate: Thu, 19 Feb 2009
Source: Rebel Yell, The (U of NV at Las Vegas, NV Edu)
Copyright: 2009 The Rebel Yell
Contact: http://www.unlvrebelyell.com/letters_to_the_editor.php
Website: http://www.unlvrebelyell.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1362
Author: Anisa Buttar
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?219 (Students for Sensible Drug Policy)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

SPEAKER REBUTS DRUG POLICY

Students, Professor Discuss The Effects And Future Of War On Drugs

American's fight against drug trafficking and abuse needs a fresh 
outlook, according to Students for Sensible Drug Policy's guest 
Stephen H. Frye.

Frye researched the topic for three years and released his book "We 
Really Lost This War! Twenty Five Reasons to Legalize Drugs" in May 
of 2008. Each chapter discusses one reason to legalize drugs.

Frye projected the table of contents of his book and talked 
extemporaneously about each topic, focusing on prisons, race, the 
government, children and solutions.

"We (the U.S.) use more drugs than the world combined," Frye said.

The U.S. comprises 5 percent of the world's population yet uses 60 
percent of the world's drugs. The war on drugs has been waged for 70 
years and has cost $1.5 trillion.

Frye emphasized the distinction between drugs and the drug war. He 
said the drug war encompasses everyone touched by the effects of 
drugs and drug policies. Though he saidd that the total number of 
people killed due to the drug war is 700,000, he emphasized, "Drugs 
kill far less people than the drug war."

Frye argued that the prison system worsens the drug epidemic.

"Jail is a career college for criminals," he said, "You turn a tax 
payer into a tax burden with the criminalization of marijuana."

The speaker also addressed race-related problems in the drug war, 
stating that 87 percent of drug users are white yet 74 percent of 
people sentenced for drug possession are black. "Whites do the crime 
and blacks do the time," he said.

SSDP President Ben Weiser became interested in drug policy because he 
saw people affected. "Good people are being prosecuted under bad 
laws," he said.

The lecture pointed out that Nevada's consideration of opening 
another prison can be tied to losses in education.

According to a report by the National Center of Public Policy and 
Higher Education, Nevada ranks the worst nationally in higher 
education. Teachers with a college degree start at around $32,000 
annually and a university professor with a Ph.D. starts at around 
$47,000 annually, but prison guards with a GED or high school diploma 
earn $50,000 plus overtime pay annually to guard non-violent pot 
smokers and drug offenders.

Frye believes releasing non-violent drug offenders, closing prisons 
and lowering guards' pay to the national average, $30,000 annually, 
will help fund education.

Frye also discussed the government's strategies on the drug war. 
"Everything you have been told by the government about drugs is a 
lie," he said. "The two proven gateway drugs are already legal: 
alcohol and cigarettes."

Frye believes America would benefit from a drug policy model like the 
Netherlands'. Marijuana would be legal and sold like alcohol and 
tobacco. "Marijuana is the safest drug in the history of the world," 
he said. "No one has ever died from marijuana."

The government would control hard drugs and provide users with 
information. "The only thing that has proven to reduce use and demand 
is treatment and education," Frye said.

He cited an experiment conducted with heroin users in the 
Netherlands. The government provided users with needles, drugs and 
information - a federal cost of $1 per day. The project had an 80 
percent cure rate in four years and the public voted the program into law.

Comparing the government-issued needles to the cost of one AIDS 
victim's $1 million treatment, Frye said. "Everybody wins for a buck a day."

Weiser and Frye emphasized the difference between supporting the 
legalization of drugs, and supporting drug use.

Weiser feels the topic is not discussed enough, especially because of 
the stigma attached to it. "The second you mention drugs people don't 
want to talk about it. Perhaps silence is part of the problem."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom