Pubdate: Thu, 26 Apr 2001
Source: Chattanooga Times & Free Press (TN)
Copyright: 2001 Chattanooga Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.timesfreepress.com/index.html
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/992
Authors: Robert Sharpe
Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n723/a04.html
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?172 (Peruvian Aircraft Shooting)

SOFT-DRUG MARKET SHOULD BE LEGALIZED

The deaths of two innocent members of an American missionary family in Peru 
should serve as a wakeup call. Autocratic former president Alberto Fujimori 
practiced a scorched-earth campaign against Peru's Shining Path guerrilla 
movement, a movement financed by black-market coca profits.

Allegations of corruption, rampant human rights violations and civilian 
deaths are remarkably similar to the current situation in Colombia. How 
many innocent Peruvians have been sacrificed at the altar of America's drug 
war? As Peruvian coca production has gone down, Colombian coca production 
and domestic methamphetamine production have both gone up, along with the 
U.S. incarceration rate, now the highest in the world.

When will the champions of the free market in the U.S. Congress acknowledge 
that immutable laws of supply and demand render the drug war a costly 
exercise in futility? This is not to say that all drugs should be 
legalized. Taxing and regulating marijuana would separate the hard and soft 
drug markets and eliminate the "gateway" to drugs like cocaine.

Establishing strict age controls is critical. Right now kids have an easier 
time buying pot than beer. Drug policy reform may send the wrong message to 
children, but I like to think the children are more important than the 
message. Opportunistic "tough on drugs" politicians would no doubt disagree.

Robert Sharpe, Program Officer, The Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy 
Foundation, Washington, D.C.
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