Pubdate: Mon, 30 Jul 2012
Source: Merced Sun-Star (CA)
Copyright: 2012 Merced Sun-Star
Contact: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/284
Website: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2546
Author: Robert Sharpe
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v12/n354/a01.html

IF MARIJUANA WERE LEGAL

Regarding your July 19 editorial "Wildlands threatened by drug war":
If marijuana were fully legal there would be no illegal marijuana
farms threatening California wildlands. Legitimate farmers would
produce it by the ton at a fraction of the current cost. There is a
reason you don't see Mexican drug cartels sneaking into national
forests to cultivate tomatoes and cucumbers. They cannot compete with
a legal market.

The first marijuana laws were enacted in response to Mexican migration
during the early 1900s, despite opposition from the American Medical
Association. Dire warnings that marijuana inspires homicidal rages
have been counterproductive. White Americans did not even begin to
smoke pot until a soon-to-be entrenched federal bureaucracy began
funding reefer madness propaganda.

Marijuana prohibition has failed miserably as a deterrent. The United
States has higher rates of marijuana use than the Netherlands, where
marijuana is legally available to adults. The only clear winners in
the war on marijuana are drug cartels and shameless tough-on-drugs
politicians who've built careers confusing the drug war's collateral
damage with a relatively harmless plant.

ROBERT SHARPE, MPA policy analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy
Arlington, Va.
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MAP posted-by: Matt