Pubdate: Wed, 30 Oct 2013
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Copyright: 2013 Houston Chronicle Publishing Company Division, Hearst Newspaper
Contact:  http://www.chron.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/198
Author: Robert Sharpe

No Joint Agreement on Pot

DISTORTION

The days when government can get away with confusing the drug war's 
tremendous collateral damage with a comparatively harmless plant are 
coming to an end. It's time for Texas legislators to catch up with 
the majority of Texans who support marijuana law reform.

If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to subsidize violent drug 
cartels, prohibition is a grand success. The drug war distorts supply 
and demand dynamics so that big money grows on little trees.

If the goal is to deter use, marijuana prohibition is a catastrophic 
failure. The United States has double the rate of marijuana use as 
the Netherlands where marijuana is legal. The criminalization of 
Americans who prefer marijuana to martinis has no basis in science. 
The war on marijuana consumers is a failed cultural inquisition, not 
an evidence-based public health campaign. Not just in Washington and 
Colorado but throughout the nation, it's time to stop the pointless 
arrests and instead tax legal marijuana.

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