Pubdate: Wed, 18 Dec 2013
Source: Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
Copyright: 2013 Sun-Sentinel Company
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/mVLAxQfA
Website: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/159
Author: Robert Sharpe
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v13/n597/a01.html

WAR ON POT NOT WORKING

Regarding Kingsley Guy's Dec. 15 column, the days when government can 
get away with deliberately confusing the drug war's tremendous 
collateral damage with a comparatively harmless plant are coming to 
an end. 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 Colorado and 
Washington state but throughout the nation, it's time to stop the 
pointless arrests and instead tax legal marijuana.

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