Pubdate: Fri, 24 May 2013
Source: San Bernardino Sun (CA)
Contact:  2013 Los Angeles Newspaper Group
Website: http://www.sbsun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1417
Author: Robert Sharpe
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v13/n202/a04.html

MARIJUANA PROHIBITION FAILS AS A DETERRENT

Regarding John Weeks' May 12 column, if health outcomes determined 
drug laws instead of cultural norms, marijuana would be legal and 
there would be no medical marijuana debate. Unlike alcohol, marijuana 
has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share 
the addictive properties of tobacco. Marijuana can be harmful, but 
jail cells are inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective 
as deterrents. The first marijuana laws were enacted in response to 
Mexican immigration during the early 1900s. Americans did not begin 
to smoke pot in significant numbers until a soon-to-be entrenched 
federal bureaucracy began funding reefer madness propaganda.

Marijuana prohibition has failed as a deterrent. The U.S. has higher 
rates of marijuana use than the Netherlands, where marijuana is 
legally available. 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 tremendous collateral damage with a 
comparatively harmless plant.

- - Robert Sharpe, policy analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington, D.C.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom