Regarding Kyle Szarzynski’s thoughtful opinion column (“‘War on drugs’ cloaks oppression,” April 23), there is a middle ground between drug prohibition and blanket legalization. Switzerland’s heroin maintenance program has effectively reduced disease, death and crime among chronic users. Addicts would not be sharing needles if not for zero tolerance laws that restrict access to clean syringes. Nor would they be committing crimes if not for artificially inflated black market prices. Providing addicts with standardized doses in a clinical setting eliminates many of the problems associated with heroin use. Heroin maintenance pilot projects are underway in Canada, England, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands. 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 marijuana distribution remains in the hands of organized crime, consumers of the most popular illicit drug will continue to come into contact with sellers of hard drugs like cocaine. Given that marijuana is arguably safer than legal alcohol — the plant has never been shown to cause an overdose death — it makes no sense to waste scarce resources on failed policies that finance organized crime and facilitate the use of hard drugs. Students who want to help reform harmful drug laws should contact Students for Sensible Drug Policy.

Robert Sharpe, MPA

Policy Analyst

Common Sense for Drug Policy

P.O. Box 59181

Washington, DC 20012

703-228-1762

http://www.csdp.org