Correspondence
Correspondence JUST SAY YES IN HIS DEFENSE OF THE DRUG WAR, John P Walters ignores basic economic principles ("Drug Wars," March 5). Our tax dollars are being wasted on a Sisyphean task. Attempts...
...Dutch rates of drug use are significantly lower than U.S...
...Of the 22 percent there for property crimes, most were probably addicts stealing to feed their habit...
...He claims we are not putting too many people in jail for drug crimes, but says that of the more than one million persons in state prisons, almost 9 percent are there for possessing drugs, more than 11 percent for selling drugs...
...RAY ALDRIDGE Ft...
...Few of them would be in jail if we had not attempted to prohibit drugs, thus creating a violent black market overseen by criminals...
...As to the criticism of data I cited, I used sources universally recognized as the best...
...Walton Beach, FL JOHN I? WALTERS used Robert Downey Jr...
...Such efforts are tantamount to price supports for organized crime...
...In the words of John Adams, "Facts are stubborn things...
...It's time to stop wasting the taxpayer's money on drug policies that do more harm than good...
...I just think it is counterproductive to imprison consenting adults for victimless crimes...
...Attempts to limit the supply of illegal drugs, while demand remains constant, only increases drug trafficking profits...
...Separating the hard and soft drug markets and establishing age controls for marijuana has proven more effective than zero tolerance...
...Students, parents, and many numbers-conscious administrators won't allow it...
...It should go without saying that a decent society is concerned with limiting self-destructive behavior...
...I am not campaigning to reduce penalties for assault, or any other violent crime...
...Walters doesn't mention federal prisons—60 percent are there for drug offenses—or local jails that are home to most minor drug offenders...
...DANNY TERWEY Santa Cruz, CA JOHN I? WALTERS RESPONDS: After the last three decades of death and destruction from drug abuse in America, to suggest that use and addiction is a victimless crime requires a willful naivete...
...rates in every category...
...As the most popular illicit drug in America, marijuana provides the black market contacts that introduce users to hard drugs...
...They are denied their due recognition, and my private commendation is no substitute...
...as an example of a drug user in need of criminal consequences...
...Drug prohibition is used to justify drug war spending...
...The Netherlands has successfully reduced overall drug use by replacing marijuana prohibition with regulation...
...There are cost-effective alternatives...
...In my admittedly singular experience it is nearly impossible to survive in my profession while insisting that 'A' means mastery, 'B' means superior work, 'C' means competence...
...Sadly for Americans, our leaders are more prone to counterproductive preaching than cost-effective pragmatism...
...There continues to be much controversy in that country over the "coffeehouses," which have in many cases become distribution points for cocaine and heroin and sources of crime...
...While Mansfield's media-worthy maneuver might highlight the problem of grade inflation, I for one am sorry that this Harvard professor didn't quietly maintain the faith—to his field, his institution, and his students...
...Are we trying to outlaw self-destructive behavior...
...I am a teacher with experience at several universities...
...I believe that the average 'A' grade of today is equivalent to a pre-1950 'C.' I currently have no grade to assign those rare students who truly achieve mastery of their subjects...
...and second, the actual experience of the Netherlands has been misrepresented...
...This "gateway" is the direct result of a fundamentally flawed policy...
...Walters implied that under drug policy reform, "fewer violent and repeat offenders and drug traffickers are punished...
...But I don't know of any victims of Downey's use other than himself...
...We may debate how far this concern should be expressed, but not whether it should...
...GRADING MANSFIELD WHETHER GRADE INFLATION began with affirmative action in the '70s, as Harvey Mansfield asserts ("Grading on the Harvard Curve," March 5), or much earlier, as I suspect, it is a massive problem at all levels of education...
...APRIL W SUSKY Anchorage, AK...
...Given that marijuana is arguably safer than alcohol, it makes no sense to perpetuate policies that spread HIV (through syringe sharing), finance organized crime, and facilitate the use of drugs like heroin...
...ROBERT SHARPE Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation, Washington, DC JOHN P WALTERS attempted to debunk some assertions made by drug law reformers...
...On the matter of the Netherlands, two points: First, the obvious, the United States is not the Netherlands...
...and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence...
...And many of the 47 percent imprisoned for violent crimes are there for drug-related robberies and murders...
Vol. 6 • March 2001 • No. 26
