Pubdate: Mon, 19 Aug 2013
Source: Journal-Inquirer (Manchester, CT)
Copyright: 2013 Journal-Inquirer
Contact:  http://www.journalinquirer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/220
Author: Robert Sharpe
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v13/n399/a07.html

MARIJUANA PROHIBITION'S FAILURE

This is in response to Chris Powell's column "'Medical' marijuana 
eases political pain" (Aug. 12):

If health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms, 
marijuana would be fully 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. Like any drug, marijuana can be harmful if abused, 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, despite opposition from the 
American Medical Association. Dire warnings that marijuana inspires 
homicidal rages in dark-skinned minorities have been 
counterproductive. White Americans did not begin to smoke pot until a 
soon-to-be entrenched federal bureaucracy began funding reefer 
madness propaganda.

Marijuana prohibition is a complete failure as a deterrent. The 
United States 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 have built careers confusing 
the drug war's tremendous collateral damage with a comparatively 
harmless plant.

Robert Sharpe

The writer is a policy analyst for Common Sense for Drug Policy in 
Washington, D.C.
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