Pubdate: Thu, 19 Oct 2006
Source: Rebel Yell, The (U of NV at Las Vegas, NV Edu)
Copyright: 2006 The Rebel Yell
Contact: http://www.unlvrebelyell.com/letters-to-the-editor.php
Website: http://www.unlvrebelyell.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1362
Author: Robert Sharpe
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?219 (Students for Sensible Drug Policy)

LET COMMON SENSE PREVAIL AT VOTING BOOTH

Dear Editor,

UNLV students need to vote yes on Ballot Question No. 7. If health 
outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms marijuana 
would be legal. Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to 
cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties 
of tobacco. Marijuana can be harmful if abused, but jail cells are 
inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective as deterrents. 
The first marijuana laws were enacted in response to Mexican 
migration during the early 1900s, despite opposition from the 
American Medical Association. Dire warnings that marijuana inspires 
homicidal rages have been counterproductive at best.

White Americans did not even begin to smoke pot until a soon-to-be 
entrenched government bureaucracy began funding reefer madness 
propaganda. By raiding voter-approved medical marijuana providers in 
California, the very same Bush administration 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. 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.

y: Robert Sharpe, MPA

Policy Analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman