Pubdate: Mon, 14 Jan 2013
Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB)
Copyright: 2013 Winnipeg Free Press
Contact: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/send_a_letter
Website: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/502
Author: Robert Sharpe
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v13/n017/a04.html

TIME TO LIFT POT BAN

Re: Pot laws hurting society (Editorials, Jan. 7).

Kudos on your editorial. Now that Washington State and Colorado have
legalized marijuana, Ottawa can no longer claim Canada must uphold
marijuana prohibition in order to maintain good U.S. relations.

In 2002, the Canadian Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs
concluded that marijuana is relatively benign, prohibition contributes
to organized crime, and law enforcement efforts have little impact on
patterns of use.

Consider the experience of the former land of the free and current
world leader in per capita incarceration. The U.S. has double the rate
of marijuana use as the Netherlands, where marijuana is legally available.

The only winners in the war on marijuana are drug cartels and
shameless tough-on-drugs politicians who deliberately confuse the drug
war's tremendous collateral damage with a comparatively harmless plant.

ROBERT SHARPE

Common Sense for Drug Policy

Washington
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