Pubdate: Tue, 24 Oct 2006
Source: Source: Berkeley Daily Planet (US CA)
Contact:  2006 The Berkeley Daily Planet
Website: http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1238
Author: Robert Sharpe

MARIJUANA LAWS NO DETERRENT

Editors, Daily Planet:

Regarding Travis C. Ash's thoughtful Oct. 17th op-ed, the drug war is 
in large part a war on marijuana, by far the most popular illicit 
drug. Punitive marijuana laws have little, if any, deterrent value. 
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 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 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 Sharpe

Policy Analyst

Common Sense for Drug Policy

Washington, D.C.
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MAP posted-by: Elaine