On Sunday, February 27, a full page ad from the Drug Policy Foundation
appeared on the back page of the Week in Review section of the New York
Times.  This ad, entitled "Will the Next $159 Billion Make You Safer?",
sums up the ways in which prohibition has failed us, and calls for a
decisive shift in policy.  DPF is offering free 11x17 copies of the ad
for the purposes of increasing its range of distribution.  If you think
you can give away a few copies to people who will read it, or to join
DPF, please contact the

        Drug Policy Foundation
        4455 Connecticut Ave, NW, Suite B-500
        Washington, DC 20008-2302
        202/537-5005
        202/537-3007 (fax)
        compuserve: 76546,215 (76546.215@compuserve.com from internet)

Here is the text of the ad:


Q:  WILL THE NEXT $150 BILLION MAKE YOU SAFER?

A:  Not if we spend it on the same old strategy.


    Since 1981, well over $150 billion of our tax dollars have gone to fight
the war on illegal drugs.  Annual spending has grown so fast that the next
$150 billion will be spent by 1997.

    But if we do not change our basic drug strategy, it is unlikely that we
will be any safer.  Current drug policies cannot deal with the excess crime,
violence and disease caused by drug prohibition.

    FACT: According to FBI data, 1 out of 3 robberies and burglaries is
          committed to obtain money for high-priced, black market drugs.

    FACT: Up to 40 percent of the murders in major cities and 20 percent of
          the killing nationwide occur in the drug trade.  Innocent children
          and police officers are often caught in the crossfire.

    FACT: 1 out of 3 U.S. AIDS cases is traceable to the sharing of infected
          needles by drug users.  Criminalizing these users and prohibiting
          access to clean needles worsens the deadly AIDS epidemic.

    These are just a few of the costs and consequences of maintaining strict
drug prohibition policies.  This great nation can do better.  With less
waste.  With more success dealing with hard-core users.  And without fueling
a war in our cities.

    What should new policies look like?  As Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders
recently suggested, we must study the legalization of drugs.  Support for
this position comes from across the political spectrum.

    Full legalization is not the only alternative.  Different policies might
make sense for different drugs.  Many options are available, including
decriminalizing user only, permitting doctors to prescribe some drugs to
addicts to undercut the black market, borrowing elements of the European
public health model, or shifting the allocation of anti-drug resources to
focus mainly on treatment and prevention rather than drug law enforcement.

    No on claims to know precisely what is best - not legalization advocates,
not prohibition's partisans.  We all share concern over the problems caused
by drug abuse in our society, but we must also concern ourselves with the
harms caused by our policies.  The question of pursuing alternatives must be
fully and realistically investigated and debated.

    What we cannot do is sit idly by while our nation continues to pursue
misguided drug policies.  Much like alcohol prohibition did, our modern
prohibition:

  - Enriches gangsters.  At least $40 billion each year goes to the criminal
    underworld as proceeds from drug sales.

  - Endangers and corrupts police.  Police officers risk their lives
    enforcing prohibition - but each drug dealer is immediately replaced.
    Drug profits have tempted too many public servants to become criminals
    themselves.

  - Fails to protect our children.  Banned drugs are often easier for our
    kids to get than regulated drugs like alcohol and tobacco.  Pushers have
    a financial incentive to draw children into the drug trade and to
    initiatie them into drug use.

    As a candidate for president, Bill Clinton defined insanity as "doing the
same thing over and over againg and expecting a different result."  Despite
some recent, commendable shifts in strategy, that is what our nation is doing
now in drug policy.

    IT'S TIME FOR CHANGE.


(Following this appears the Drug Policy Foundation's Board of Directors,
 Board of Advisors, and additional signatories to the advertisement.
 Interestingly, probably not coincidentally, on the other side of the
 page are the editorials, including nobel prize winning Latin-American
 author Gabriel Garcia-Marquez's manifesto calling for international
 legalization of drugs.)