Pubdate: Thu, 04 May 2006
Source: Ventura County Star (CA)
Copyright: 2006 The E.W. Scripps Co.
Contact:  http://www.staronline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/479
Author: Robert Sharpe
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n559/a05.html

FIGHT TERRORISM, NOT POT

Re: Paul C. Campos' April 27 commentary, "In reviewing some drugs, 
FDA practices twisted science":

If health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms, 
marijuana would be legal. Marijuana can be harmful if abused, but 
jail cells are inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective 
as deterrents.

The first marijuana laws were enacted in response to Mexican 
migration during the early 1900s, despite opposition from the 
American Medical Association. Dire warnings that marijuana inspires 
homicidal rages have been counterproductive at best. White Americans 
did not even begin to smoke pot until a soon-to-be entrenched 
government bureaucracy began funding reefer madness propaganda.

The reefer madness myths have long been discredited, forcing the drug 
war gravy train to spend millions of tax dollars on politicized 
research, trying to find harm in a relatively harmless plant. 
Meanwhile, research that might demonstrate medical marijuana's 
efficacy has been consistently blocked by the Food and Drug 
Administration. By raiding voter-approved medical marijuana providers 
in California, the very same Bush administration that claims illicit 
drug use funds terrorism is forcing cancer and AIDS patients into the 
hands of street dealers. Apparently, marijuana prohibition is more 
important than protecting the country from terrorism.

- -- Robert Sharpe, Arlington, VA (The writer is a policy analyst with 
Common Sense for Drug Policy in Washington, D.C. -- Editor)
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom