Pubdate: Sat, 28 Dec 2013
Source: London Free Press (CN ON)
Copyright: 2013 The London Free Press
Contact: http://www.lfpress.com/letters
Website: http://www.lfpress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/243
Author: Robert Sharpe
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v13/n611/a02.html

TIME TO END WAR ON MARIJUANA

Regarding Greg Van Moorsel's Dec. 20 editorial Tories need a strategy 
if pot's high on agenda:

The Tories need to catch up with the 21st century. The days when 
politicians can get away with confusing the drug war's 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.

Consider the experience of the former land of the free and current 
record holder in citizens incarcerated. The United States has double 
the rate of marijuana use as the Netherlands where marijuana is legal.

The criminalization of people 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. It's time 
to stop the arrests and instead tax legal marijuana.

Robert Sharpe

Arlington, VA
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom