Pubdate: Wed, 30 Oct 2002
Source: Chronicle, The (NC Edu)
Copyright: 2002 The Chronicle, Box 90858, Durham, N.C. 27708 This publication m
Contact: http://www.chronicle.duke.edu/contactus.php
Website: http://www.chronicle.duke.edu/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2269
Author: Robert Sharpe

U.S. DRUG POLICY HURTS EVERYONE FOR NO GOOD REASON

Robert Sharpe (Program Officer, Drug Policy Alliance)

Matthew Tolnick makes a strong case for drug policy reform in his letter to 
the editor on the Duke chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy. It's 
worth noting that the various countries listed by Tolnick as having 
abandoned the zero-tolerance drug war have lower rates of drug use. The 
University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future Study reports that lifetime 
use of marijuana is higher in the United States than in any European 
country, yet America is one of the few Western countries that uses its 
criminal justice system to punish citizens who prefer marijuana to 
martinis. Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an 
overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. The 
short-term health effects of marijuana are inconsequential compared to the 
long-term effects of criminal records. Unfortunately, marijuana represents 
the counterculture to misguided reactionaries in Congress intent on 
legislating their version of morality. In subsidizing the prejudices of 
culture warriors, the U.S. government is inadvertently subsidizing 
organized crime.

The drug war's distortion of immutable laws of supply and demand make an 
easily grown weed literally worth its weight in gold. The only clear 
winners in the war on some drugs are drug cartels and shameless 
tough-on-drugs politicians who've built careers on confusing drug 
prohibition's collateral damage with a relatively harmless plant. The big 
losers in this battle are the American taxpayers who have been deluded into 
believing big government is the appropriate response to non-traditional 
consensual vices. Students interested in drug policy reform should contact 
Students for Sensible Drug Policy at www.ssdp.org.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens