What happens when a government relaxes its drug laws? Addiction rates and drug use by underage teens rise, often dramatically. Even if drug use is restricted to adults, the loosening of taboos and the elimination of legal penalties lead youth to understand these addictive substances in a different way – a less harmful way. The evidence lies in the numbers.

• Alaska and Oregon experienced a doubling in marijuana addiction rates when they relaxed their drug laws. Alaska finally recriminalized marijuana in 1990.
• The Netherlands loosened its drug laws for adults in 1997, and marijuana use jumped dramatically for nearly every age group during a time when marijuana use in the United States decreased.
• Great Britain experimented with heroin as a prescription drug and found that it created a huge black market for addicts, raising their number by 100%. A disproportionate percentage of these new addicts were sixteen and seventeen. They have since phased out this program.
• In 1992 Switzerland ended their policy of decriminalization when the number of drug addicts they were attempting to contain in their needle park jumped from a few hundred to over 20,000.
• On a positive note, Partnership for a Drug Free America reports in a 2004 study that anti-drug advertising seen by teens has increased by 64 percent, leading to a decline in drug use by 51 percent.

When the word gets out that drug use is the wrong choice, the choice becomes obvious.