by Feed your head with a play by Pamela Olson

Created on: March 03, 2009   Last Updated: March 05, 2009

"The drug war, not the drugs, kills people." The Dutch have shown us the path to peace and now is the time to recognize their achievement. Therefore I would nominate the people of the Netherlands.

Along with the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML, my colleague Stephen H. Frye, M.D., has decided to join in coordinating the nomination of the Netherlands for a Nobel Prize for its achievements in minimizing drug use in its citizens, while at the same time restricting unnecessary imprisonment.

The following quotes from physician Stephen H. Frye's book 'Twenty-five Reasons to Legalize Drugs - We Really Lost This War! document the validity and appropriateness of this nomination.

"The drug war, not the drugs, kills people."

This is now a real war. Although it started out as political rhetoric, it's become a genuinely deadly conflict. It has caused hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths and untold misery, especially to our children, teens, women, and minorities. And like all wars, it's been hugely expensive and wasteful; to date, it has cost more than a trillion dollars. And this is just in the United States; the international devastation is incomprehensible. Furthermore, like many wars, it's based on lies.

"The few deaths that are caused by the drugs are due to impurities, dosages that are not standardized, and reluctance to call 911 when someone overdoses out of fear of being arrested. Replacing prohibition with sensible health-oriented alternatives, including legalizing currently illicit drugs, can eliminate these drug-related deaths.

"The Dutch should be recognized for their remarkable human rights achievement of regulating and decriminalizing drugs and equally important, offering comprehensive treatment to its affected citizens. The number of lives they have saved, as well as assaults, robberies, rapes, child abuse, and other prohibition-related criminal activities that they've prevented, is a major humanitarian and public health accomplishment. Their success in minimizing the catastrophic effects of the War on Drugs cannot be overstated. For example, the U.S. has six times as many people in prisons as the Netherlands per capita, and still we have four times their murder rate.

"Compared to ours, the Dutch prison population is negligible and they actually provide education and rehabilitation for their inmates. Furthermore, their incidence of AIDS and hepatitis is a fraction of ours.

"Taken together, these groundbreaking medical, human rights

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