To the editor:

It is refreshing to read of a recently proposed public health approach to drug use in Kansas. European countries, especially the Netherlands and the Swiss Confederation, have been developing a public health approach to drug usage for 10 years and more.

There are considerable benefits from taking a public health approach to drug users. The Swiss have seen many former drug users now employed. The number of deaths from drug overdose is down about half. The health of drug users is improved. Now other west European countries are following their lead.

Like the proposed change by the Kansas Sentencing Commission, hard drugs remain illegal, and subject to police repression. On the other hand the Swiss “Federal Decree on the medical prescription of heroin was approved in a popular vote (about two-thirds in favor) on 13 June 1999.” (www.dfi. admin.ch) The Swiss found that hard core addicts make more successful and lasting change when THEY finally decide on the step to drug treatment.

The Swiss are looking toward changes in their laws to make consumption and growing of cannabis products legal. Likewise in October 2001, the British home secretary, David Blunkett, announced a change in policy. British “police will lose the power to arrest the 90,000 people a year who are currently charged with possession offenses.” (The Guardian, 10-24-01) The “coffee houses” in Holland where cannabis is legally sold and used are well-known, and sometimes shocking to our Puritan sensibilities.

I hope our Legislature sees the benefits of a public health approach to drugs. Also I hope the legislators see the need for adequate appropriations to implement real drug treatment programs in Kansas.

Mark Larson,

Lawrence