Pubdate: Wed, 05 Mar 2003
Source: Daily Journal, The (NJ)
Copyright: 2003 Daily Journal
Contact:  http://www.thedailyjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2250
Author: Robert Sharpe

PROTECT U.S. FROM TERRORISM, NOT MARIJUANA

Kudos to Andrew Lisa for his insightful column "The latest drug war is just 
smoke and mirrors" (DJ-3/1) on John Ashcroft's marijuana jihad. While the 
nation is under high alert for terrorism, our puritanical attorney general 
has the Department of Justice wasting scarce resources in a nationwide hunt 
for bongs. With long overdue marijuana law reform very likely in Canada, 
the United States may soon be one the few Western countries that uses its 
criminal justice system to punish otherwise law-abiding citizens who prefer 
marijuana to martinis. Evidence of the U.S. government's reefer madness is 
best exemplified by the Drug Enforcement Administration's paramilitary 
raids on voter-approved medical marijuana providers in California. The very 
same federal government that claims illicit drug use funds terrorism is 
forcing cancer and AIDS patients into the hands of street dealers. 
Apparently, marijuana prohibition is more important than protecting the 
country from terrorism.

Robert Sharpe program officer Drug Policy Alliance
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