Pubdate: Sun, 07 Dec 2014
Source: Tribune Review (Pittsburgh, PA)
Copyright: 2014 Tribune-Review Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://triblive.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/460
Author: Robert Sharpe
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v14/n901/a10.html

INDEFENSIBLE & FAILED

Regarding the thoughtful editorial "U.N. Watch: What are they 
smoking?" : Obsolete United Nations conventions passed in ignorance 
back in 1961 are no reason to put the brakes on state efforts to tax 
and regulate marijuana. Marijuana prohibition is indefensible.

If the goal is to subsidize violent drug cartels and open a gateway 
to the meth and heroin they sell, prohibition is a grand success. The 
drug war distorts supply-and-demand dynamics so big money grows on 
little trees.

If the goal is to deter use, marijuana prohibition is a catastrophic 
failure. The United States has almost double the rate of marijuana 
use as the Netherlands, where marijuana has been legally available for decades.

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.

Robert Sharpe

Washington, D.C.

The writer is a policy analyst with Common Sense for Drug Policy (csdp.org)
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom