MIDDLE GROUND

There is a middle ground between drug prohibition and blanket
legalization. Switzerland's heroin maintenance program has reduced
disease, death and crime among chronic users. If expanded,
prescription heroin maintenance would deprive organized crime of a
core client base. This would render illegal heroin trafficking
unprofitable and spare future generations addiction. Marijuana should
be taxed and regulated like alcohol, only without the ubiquitous
advertising. Separating the hard- and soft-drug markets is critical.
As long as organized crime controls marijuana distribution, consumers
of the most popular illicit drug will continue to come into contact
with sellers of hard drugs like methamphetamine. This introduction is
a direct result of marijuana prohibition.

Robert Sharpe

(Prohibitions on bad habits just don't work.)