Pubdate: Thu, 20 Sep 2007
Source: Daily Forty-Niner (Cal State Long Beach, CA Edu)
Copyright: 2007 Daily Forty-Niner
Contact: http://www.daily49er.com/home/lettertotheeditor/
Website: http://www.daily49er.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1391
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1074/a06.html
Author: Robert Sharpe

REEFER POLICY OUT OF WHACK

If health outcomes deter-mined 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. Like any drug, marijuana can be harmful if 
abused. But jail cells are inappropriate as health interventions and 
ineffective as deterrents.

The first marijuana laws were enacted during the early 1900s, despite 
opposition from the AMA. 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 [DEA] 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 should contact Students for Sensible 
Drug Policy at a www.SchoolsNotPrisons.com.

Robert Sharpe,

MPA Policy Analyst,

Common Sense for Drug Policy,

Washington, D.C.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom