Pubdate: Mon, 19 Jul 2004 Source: Pacific Daily News (Guam) Copyright: 2004 Pacific Daily News Contact: http://www.guampdn.com/customerservice/contactus.html Website: http://www.guampdn.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1122 Author: Robert Sharpe Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04.n952.a01.html LOSERS OF DRUG WAR ARE AMERICAN TAXPAYERS Kudos to Chris Curran Dombrowski for an excellent July 4 column. The drug war is in large part a war on marijuana, by far the most popular illicit drug. Marijuana prohibition has done little other than burden millions of otherwise law-abiding citizens with criminal records. The University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future Study reports that lifetime use of marijuana is higher in the United States than 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 many Americans. In subsidizing the prejudices of culture warriors, the U.S. government is subsidizing organized crime. The drug war's distortion of immutable laws of supply and demand makes an easily grown weed literally worth its weight in gold. The only clear winners in the war on marijuana 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. Robert Sharpe, policy analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington, D.C. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin