Pubdate: Thu, 08 Dec 2005
Source: Arbiter, The (Boise State, ID Edu)
Copyright: 2005 The Arbiter
Contact:  http://www.arbiteronline.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3516
Author: Robert Sharpe
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1915/a03.html Re

DRUG LAWS DO NOT REDUCE CRIME

Brandon Stoker makes the common mistake of assuming that punitive drug
laws actually reduce use. The drug war is in large part a war on
marijuana, by far the most popular illicit drug. 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 use's its
criminal justice system to punish citizens who prefer marijuana to
martinis.

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, government is
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 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. Students who want to help end the
intergenerational culture war otherwise known as the war on some drugs
should contact Students for Sensible Drug Policy at
www.ssdp.org.

Robert Sharp

Washington, D.C.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake