That would have brought in some serious cash!!!
But don't take my word for it. I am a long time proponent of Amsterdam's "legalize everything" drug policy, ever since I found out that our addiction rate was several times theirs and we spend far more on interdiction and prisons than they do on drug treatment clinics.
Comparing Important Drug and Violence Indicators
Social Indicator...........................................Comparison Year...........USA................Netherlands
Lifetime prevalence of marijuana use (ages 12+)..............2001................36.9%...............17.0%
Past month prevalence of marijuana use (ages 12+)............2001.................5.4%................3.0%
Lifetime prevalence of heroin use (ages 12+).................2001.................1.4%................0.4%
Incarceration Rate per 100,000 population....................2002................701.................100
Per capita spending on criminal justice system (in Euros)....1998................€379................€223
Homicide rate per 100,000 population......................Average 1999-2001.......5.56................1.51
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/node/67Even faced with documented facts that show our drug policy is not working and is, therefore, a waste of taxpayers money the successive US administrations stick to their guns and continue the failed US drug policies. Meanwhile, the other Western powers do not see things the way the US does:
In recent years, most Western democracies have been moving away from U.S.-style punitive prohibition toward the regulatory and "harm reduction" approaches pioneered by the Netherlands. England, Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, and Austria have all taken steps in the Dutch direction. They have adopted needle exchanges to slow the spread of HIV/AIDS. They have made addiction treatment more available. Several have decriminalized personal possession of cannabis and occasionally other drugs. Most have reduced imprisonment of drug offenders to a fraction of U.S. levels. Switzerland's clinical experiment with heroin maintenance for addicts who had failed other treatments proved so successful the Swiss electorate voted to expand it. Now health officials in Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, and Canada are taking similar steps.
The U.S. adamantly opposes these public health-oriented drug policies in favor of more imprisonment. In the 1980s, the Reagan and Bush administrations campaigned to make drug policy "tougher." Congress passed new laws like the 1987 "Drug-Free America Act" giving life sentences to petty dealers. Successive Drug Czars declared "war on drugs," and funding for the Czar's agency escalated from $1 billion in 1981 to $17 billion in 1998. In the same period, Department of Justice figures show the number of drug offenders in prison rose 800%. American leaders of both parties still speak proudly of a "zero tolerance" approach to drug users.
Yet this punishment-based policy is not recognized as successful even by its advocates. Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey is only the latest prominent official to note the need for alternatives to the drug war. For years all major media have reported the pitfalls of punitive prohibition. Most Americans in opinion polls don't believe the war can work. They are right: After the most massive wave of imprisonment in U.S. history,
the U.S. has higher rates of drug problems than most other societies. After bombarding its youth with more antidrug education than any generation in history, their drug use increased in five of the last six years.
Faced with such facts, some prohibitionists have become defensive, attacking Dutch drug policy because it challenges conventional drug war wisdom. In the May/June issue of Foreign Affairs, Larry Collins asserted that Dutch policies had caused an "explosion" of heroin addiction and juvenile crime. He claimed that the Netherlands has become "the narcotics capitol of Europe," a virtual drug dealing state causing havoc in neighboring countries. Most of Collins' arguments are false or misleading. In this brief Comment, we can only point to a few of the flaws in his case. But they are important because his rhetorical tactics are precisely those traditionally used to shore up failed drug policies.
http://www.cedro-uva.org/lib/reinarman.devil.html
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
