Pubdate: Mon, 27 Jul 2009
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Copyright: 2009 The Seattle Times Company
Contact:  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n722/a01.html
Author: Dan Magill

MONEY IS NO REASON TO LEGALIZE MARIJUANA

It appears that some who decried the supposed lack of "science-based" 
policy from the Bush administration seem to have forgotten their own verbiage.

California's marijuana industry is thriving ["California finds pot is 
a huge cash cow," page one, July 19], and it now appears pot can cure 
allergies, insomnia, throat inflammation and sugar cravings.

It's a miracle drug! Does it cure impotence too? Oops. Not from what 
those pesky scientists have said.

Where's the science to support any of this? If marijuana cures 
allergies, that would be front-page news. Insomnia? Get real. The 
truth is that people use the science argument only when the views of 
one party disagree with their own. In the words of one man who gets 
his weed with a doctor's note, this whole policy is a joke that just 
legalizes what people already wanted. Medicine has nothing to do with it.

And never mind the environmental degradation, the used-up farmland 
and wasted water, the thriving and murderous criminal cartels that 
won't pay taxes anyway and the populations sedated into apathy and complacence.

The reason for all this? It's also green, but you can't smoke it, 
though you can burn through it pretty fast.

Governments are pressured to sign on to this for one reason: money. 
And when money is the primary motivation for making wholesale changes 
to criminal and social policies, I think that ought to be a major 
cause for concern.

Dan Magill, Seattle
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake