Pubdate: Thu, 13 Sep 2012
Source: Portland Tribune (OR)
Copyright: 2012 Pamplin Media Group
Contact: http://www.portlandtribune.com/forms/letters_form.php
Website: http://www.portlandtribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2056
Author: Joey Ismail

PROHIBITION CREATED THE MAFIA, CARTELS

Simply absurd. We create a black market, then the (officials) stand 
back in "shock" while criminal elements take over that market 
(Marijuana legalization is a lot of smoke, Aug. 23).

We are responsible for the deaths in Mexico. We created the drug war, 
we handed (the cartels) a multi-billion dollar business. Cartels now 
have planes, trains, guns, submarines and armies. Welcome to reality.

People are getting killed by cigarettes, but I don't see anyone 
suggesting we turn smokers into criminals and hand the tobacco 
industry over to the cartels.

I don't hear anyone mentioning alcohol, either - a drug that kills 
more than 2.5 million people worldwide every year.

Still, we tried prohibition and we created the mafia. Now, with 
marijuana, we have the cartels. This isn't rocket science: Marijuana 
should have never been illegal in the first place. It's by far the 
safest recreational drug on the market.

None of the silly horror stories has come true for medical marijuana, 
and none of it will come true if we legalize.

Joey Ismail

Houston, Texas
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom