WAR ON DRUGS IS ABYSMAL FAILURE

Editor:

In Donald Adderton's recent column "Rising To The Challenge Of Drugs, Gangs
Takes Guts" he writes "... There has been a concerted government response
... to the illegal drug invasion with varying degrees of success ..."

The varying degrees of success have been: unsuccess, failure and
counterproductive disaster.

We have been waging a vast and outrageously expensive war against drug
users for over forty years and drugs are cheaper, purer, more varied and
more available now than at any time in human history.

We need to look for alternative solutions because what we are doing is not
working and more of the same won't help.

Some European countries are generating measurable success by medicalizing
the use of hard drugs (letting doctors rather than police help drug
addicts) and by regulating rather than criminalizing marijuana.

Making cannabis available to adults takes it out of the hands of street
dealers who will also sell hard drugs to anyone, including children. These
measures have reduced the overall number of drug abusers as well as the
associated damage, death and crime.

Outrage at the destruction caused by drug abuse is warranted, but it must
be coupled with practical steps to reduce the harm caused by both drugs and
the drug war.

Richard W. Jones, Jackson