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Thursday, 26 October 2006 |
The drug war has failed.
The U.S. spends nearly $50 billion annually on the drug war and yet
problems related to drug abuse continue to worsen. We need to
acknowledge that drug abuse is a health problem with social and
economic consequences. Therefore, the solutions are: public health,
social services, economic development and tender supportive time with
addicts in our depersonalized society. Law enforcement should be at
the edges of drug control, not at the center.
It is time to
bring some illegal drugs within the law by regulating, taxing and
controlling them. Ending the drug war will dramatically reduce street
crime, violence and homicides related to underground drug dealing. It
is time to transform the failed war on drugs into a pragmatic policy
that reduces drug abuse and the harm caused by abuse. The U.S. needs
to rely less on incarceration. As a result of the drug war, one in
four of the world’s prisoners reside in U.S. prisons. Incarcerating
drug-users fails to promote health and safety, and also fills our
prisons with African Americans, despite the fact that many more white
Americans use and sell drugs. Indeed, Maryland has the most racially
unfair drug enforcement; ninety percent of those imprisoned on drug
charges in Maryland are African-American.
Government
involvement too often does more harm than good. Prevention
information by the government has not been scientific, but
propagandistic - more misleading than useful.
The criminal
prosecution of patients for medical marijuana must end immediately,
and marijuana must be treated as a medicine for the seriously ill.
The current cruel, unjust policy perpetuated and enforced by the Bush
administration prevents Americans who suffer from debilitating
illnesses from experiencing the relief of medicinal cannabis.
Physicians must have the right to prescribe this drug to their
patients without the fear of the federal government revoking their
licenses, and doctor-patient privacy must be protected. The Drug
Enforcement Administration should not be practicing medicine.
As
president of Common Sense for Drug Policy and co-founder of the
Maryland Treatment Not Incarceration Coalition, I have advocated a
health-based policy concerning drug use. It is time to end our failed
drug war and implement a more logical and effective response.
For
more information visit Common
Sense for Drug Policy, Drug
War Facts, and Treatment
Not Jail .
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