Pubdate: Wed, 23 Sep 2015
Source: Porterville Recorder (CA)
Copyright: 2015 Freedom Communications Inc.
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/AJm5UIc8
Website: http://www.recorderonline.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2887
Author: Robert Sharpe

MARIJUANA

Editor,

It's been almost 20 years since California voters approved medical 
marijuana. State legislature efforts to restrict marijuana access 
only benefit Mexican drug cartels. It's time for California to move 
beyond medical marijuana and catch up with Colorado. 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 almost double the lifetime rate of 
marijuana use as the Netherlands where marijuana has been legally 
available for decades. The federal war on marijuana consumers is a 
failed cultural inquisition, not an evidence-based public health 
campaign. In California and throughout the nation, it's time to stop 
the pointless arrests and instead tax legal marijuana.

Robert Sharpe, MPA Policy Analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom