Eric E. Sterling of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation spoke at length about a number of drug policy reform questions. He addressed the question of the morality of drug use in contrast to the wisdom or stupidity of using drugs. He then charged that prohibition is immoral, far more immoral than simply using drugs, or regulating their use. He pointed out how prohibition results in recruiting people into the criminal drug trade. Prohibition recruits people into the violence of the drug trade.
Prohibition recruits people to serve as informants against their friends, family and neighbors.
Sterling outlined the powerful economics of prohibition and reported on the book, Land of Opportunity , which he reviewed in NewsBriefs in September 1995. Sterling explained that the concept of legalization is very ambiguous and advocated a form of regulation and control of the traffic in drugs. Research in California has shown that a dollar spent in drug abuse treatment saves seven dollars of taxpayer expenditures for other types of social services. Support the expansion of drug court programs. Fight for drug prevention programs that are effective.