Pubdate: Sun, 22 Dec 2002
Source: Quesnel Cariboo Observer (CN BC)
Copyright: 2002 Quesnel Cariboo Observer
Contact:  http://www.quesnelobserver.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1260
Author: Robert Sharpe
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n2272/a08.html

HORNER WAS RIGHT ABOUT POT

Editor:

Neil Horner's December 11 column was right on target.

Telling examples of drug war failure can be found very close to home. The 
University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future study reports that lifetime 
use of marijuana is higher in the U.S. than any European country, yet the 
U.S. 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 intent on legislating their version of morality. In 
subsidizing the prejudices of culture warriors, 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 taxpayers who have been deluded into 
believing big government is the appropriate response to non-traditional 
consensual vices.

Robert Sharpe

Arlington, Virginia
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MAP posted-by: Tom