Pubdate: Wed, 26 Mar 2003
Source: Lumberjack, The (CA Edu)
Copyright: The Lumberjack Newspaper, Humboldt State Univesity, 2003
Contact:  http://www.thejack.org/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2736
Author: Robert Sharpe

DRUG LAWS MAKE WEED GOOD AS GOLD

Has the UPD's bong confiscations resulted in a "drug-free" campus yet?

The drug war is in large part a war against marijuana, by far the most 
popular illicit drug. Punitive marijuana laws have little, if any, 
deterrent value.

The University of Michigan's "Monitoring the Future" study reports that 
lifetime use of marijuana is higher in the U.S. than any European country.

America is one of the few Western countries that uses its criminal justice 
system to punish citizens who prefer marijuana to martinis.

Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, 
nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco.

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 in Congress intent on legislating their version of morality. 
In subsidizing the prejudices of culture warriors, the U.S. government is 
inadvertently subsidizing organized crime.

The drug war's distortion of immutable laws of supply and demand make an 
easily-grown weed literally worth its weight in gold.

The only clear winners in the war on marijuana 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.

The big losers in this battle are the American taxpayers who have been 
deluded into believing big government is the appropriate response to 
non-traditional consensual vices.

Students who want to help end the intergenerational culture war otherwise 
known as the war on some drugs should contact Students for Sensible Drug 
Policy at www. sspd.org 
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart