Pubdate: Mon, 23 Oct 2006 Source: Aspen Times (CO) Contact: 2006 Aspen Times Website: http://www.aspentimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3784 Author: Joe Edwards HOW TO REDUCE INSANITY AND TERRORISM Dear Editor: Amendment 44 would legalize personal use of marijuana under Colorado law. Marijuana previously was sold over the counter in one ounce packets for headaches and insomnia and in Brown's Sedative tablets and Lilly's One Day Cough Cure. Cocaine and morphine were also sold in drug stores. The big problems began when the drugs were made illegal. We're repeating the same mistakes of alcohol prohibition. After 24 years of the war on drugs and wasting tens of billions of dollars, it's obvious sale and use of drugs can't be stopped. These drugs cause transient pleasurable feelings and there is a continuing demand. The United Nations estimates illegal drug trade value at $400 billion a year (equal our defense budget). The United States arrests 1.5 million citizens a year for drug violations, half for marijuana, and imprisons 440,000 non-violent drug offenders, at a staggering cost to taxpayers and trauma to the families, as often their children become wards of the state. Violent criminals, murderers, rapists and child molesters are released early to make room for drug offenders. Guards don't have time to read mail of terrorists because of prison overcrowding. Half of court trial time and thousands of police officers time is wasted on the war on drugs. Enormous untaxed profits from illegal drugs fund criminal organizations which bribe law enforcement authorities. These laws made violent criminals multi-billionaires and corrupted entire countries; Columbia, Panama, Mexico and Afghanistan. The extreme violence on our southern border is drug gangs fighting for the lucrative business. The drug laws are funding the warlords and Taliban who use the profits from opium poppies to buy weapons. The definition of "insanity" is great folly, madness, extreme senselessness, lunacy. Our drug laws are insane. Supposed health concerns of marijuana use are false, as the legality of cigarettes and alcohol makes clear. A lethal dose of alcohol is easily achieved and kills 100,000 a year, is the most toxic drug to a developing fetus, and causes another 45,000 DUI deaths a year. Cigarettes, are highly addictive and kill 440,000 a year and are the leading cause of preventable deaths. Conversely, marijuana has no lethal dosage, no one ever died from using it, it is not addictive, it does not cause cancer or other physiological problems. A drug user seeking pleasure in his home does not harm others, so we should question the ethical basis for kicking in their door and putting them in prison. These victimless crimes are a legacy from the Puritan theocracy, which enforced their belief that seeking pleasure was a sin. A more rational standard for ethical behavior is that if an action harms others or their property, it should be deemed wrong and, if serious enough, made a crime. Otherwise it should be ignored. If Colorado voters act rationally in November we can begin to stop imprisoning citizens for harmless marijuana use. Joe Edwards Carbondale - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake