Pubdate: Thu, 02 Jan 2003
Source: Eye Magazine (CN ON)
Copyright: 2003 Eye Communications Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.eye.net/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/147
Author: Robert Sharpe
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n2309/a09.html?1590

WEEDING OUT BAD POLICY

Your Dec. 19 editorial ("Federal smokescreen") was right on target. There 
is a big difference between condoning marijuana use and protecting children 
from drugs. Decriminalization acknowledges the social reality of marijuana 
and frees users from the stigma of criminal records. What's really needed 
is a regulated market with age controls.

Separating the hard and soft drug markets is critical. As long as marijuana 
distribution remains in the hands of organized crime, consumers will 
continue to come into contact with hard drugs like cocaine. This "gateway" 
is the direct result of a fundamentally flawed policy.

In the words of Canadian Senator Pierre Claude Nolin, "Scientific evidence 
overwhelmingly indicates that cannabis is substantially less harmful than 
alcohol and should be treated not as a criminal issue but as a social and 
public health issue." Marijuana may be relatively harmless, but marijuana 
prohibition is deadly.

Telling examples of drug war failure can be found very close to home. The 
University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future study reports that lifetime 
use [i.e. using a drug once or more during a lifetime] of marijuana is 
higher in the U.S. than any European country, yet the U.S. is one of the 
few Western countries that uses its criminal justice system to punish 
citizens who prefer marijuana to martinis.

The short-term health effects of marijuana are inconsequential compared to 
the long-term effects of criminal records. Unfortunately, marijuana 
represents the counterculture to misguided reactionaries intent on 
legislating their version of morality.

The drug war's distortion of immutable laws of supply and demand make an 
easily grown weed worth its weight in gold. The only clear winners in the 
war on some drugs are drug cartels and shameless tough-on-drugs politicians 
who've built careers on confusing drug prohibition's collateral damage with 
a relatively harmless plant.

ROBERT SHARPE, PROGRAM OFFICER, DRUG POLICY ALLIANCE, WASHINGTON, DC
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