Pubdate: Sun, 21 Mar 2010 Source: Burlington Times-News (NC) Copyright: 2010 Freedom Communications, Inc. Contact: http://www.thetimesnews.com/sections/contactus/letter.php Website: http://www.thetimesnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1822 Author: Robert Sharpe DRUG WAR IS COSTLY AND DOES MORE HARM THAN GOOD Regarding your editorial published on March 11 about marijuana laws, the drug war is largely a war on marijuana smokers. In 2008, there were 847,863 marijuana arrests in the U.S., almost 90 percent for simple possession. At a time when state and local governments are laying off police, firefighters and teachers, this country continues to spend enormous public resources criminalizing Americans who prefer marijuana to martinis. The end result of this ongoing culture war is not necessarily lower rates of use. The U.S. has higher rates of marijuana use than the Netherlands, where marijuana is legally available. Decriminalization is a long overdue step in the right direction. Taxing and regulating marijuana would render the drug war obsolete. As long as organized crime controls marijuana distribution, consumers will continue to come into contact with sellers of hard drugs like methamphetamine and heroin. This "gateway" is a direct result of marijuana prohibition. Robert Sharpe Arlington, Va. Robert Sharpe is a policy analyst for the Washington D.C.-based Common Sense for Drug Policy. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake