Pubdate: Tue, 14 Aug 2012
Source: Record, The (Hackensack, NJ)
Copyright: 2012 North Jersey Media Group Inc.
Contact:  http://www.northjersey.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/44
Author: Robert Sharpe
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v12/n401/a06.html

PROHIBITION DOESN'T WORK

Regarding "Glacial progress" (Editorial, Aug. 11):

If health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms,
marijuana would be fully legal and there would be no medical marijuana
debate. Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an
overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco.

Marijuana can be harmful, but jail cells are inappropriate as health
interventions and ineffective as deterrents.

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

Marijuana prohibition has failed miserably as a deterrent. The United
States has higher rates of marijuana use than the Netherlands, where
marijuana is legally available to adults. The only clear winners in
the war on marijuana are drug cartels and shameless tough-on-drugs
politicians who have built careers confusing the drug war's collateral
damage with a relatively harmless plant.

Robert Sharpe

Washington, D.C., Aug. 12

The writer is policy analyst for Common Sense for Drug Policy, an
advocacy group.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt