Drugs: Criminalization is failed policy

Re: “Drug decriminalization in Oregon is bad omen,” (TNT letter, 11/15).

The writer decries the decriminalization of “hard” drugs. Here are some drugs as toxic and dangerous as those she names: alcohol, nicotine, and opioids, all of which cause far more social damage and death.

Yet we live with them anyway. Prohibition has never worked and never will. The War on Drugs has destroyed the lives of millions of people in the US as well as in countries we have exported it to, including Mexico and Colombia.

And it has done nothing to reduce drug flow and consumption or reduce crime and gang violence. On the contrary it has engendered them.

The Oregon law, derived from a long-term Portuguese program, treats drugs as a health problem concentrating on treatment and education. It has halved addiction and reduced crime in that country at far lower cost than our prison model.

Finally it is ignorant to include LSD in any list of hard drugs. A standard dose of LSD is just 250 micrograms, is out of the human body in 20 minutes and is non-addictive. It has greatly aided cancer patients coping with anxiety and fear of death.

This story was originally published November 28, 2020 at 10:19 AM with the headline "Drugs: Criminalization is failed policy."