Pubdate: Fri, 23 Aug 2002 Source: Standard, The (St. Catharines, CN ON) Copyright: 2002, The Standard Contact: http://www.canada.com/stcatharines/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/676 Author: Robert Sharpe DRUG LAWS ARE BASED ON FEAR Unfortunately, a review of marijuana legislation would open up a Pandora's box most politicians would just as soon avoid. North America's marijuana laws are based on culture and xenophobia, not science. The first marijuana laws were enacted in response to Mexican migration during the early 1900s. An Edmonton woman writing under the pen name Janey Canuck first warned Canadians about dread marijuana and its association with non-white immigrants. The sensationalist yellow journalism of William Randolph Hearst led to its criminalization in the United States. Dire warnings that marijuana inspires homicidal rages have been counterproductive at best. Whites did not even begin to smoke marijuana until a soon-to-be entrenched government bureaucracy began funding reefer madness propaganda. The reefer madness myths have long been discredited, forcing the drug war gravy train to spend millions of tax dollars on politicized research, trying to find harm in a relatively harmless plant. The direct experience of millions of marijuana consumers contradicts the sensationalistic myths used to justify marijuana prohibition. Illegal drug use is the only public health issue wherein key stakeholders are not only ignored, but actively persecuted and incarcerated. In terms of medical marijuana, those stakeholders happen to be cancer and AIDS patients. Robert Sharpe, M.P.A Program Officer Drug Policy Alliance, 15th Street, NW Washington, D.C. - --- MAP posted-by: Alex