Pubdate: Mon, 07 Jan 2013
Source: Porterville Recorder (CA)
Copyright: 2013 Freedom Communications Inc.
Contact: http://www.recorderonline.com/sections/editor-form/
Website: http://www.recorderonline.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2887
Author: Robert Sharpe
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v12/n665/a07.html

LEGALIZE MARIJUANA

Editor,

Regarding your Dec. 27 editorial, if marijuana were fully legal there 
would be no backyard residential growers cashing in on inflated 
medical marijuana prices. Legitimate farmers would produce it by the 
ton at a fraction of the current cost. There is a reason you don't 
see Mexican drug cartels sneaking into national forests to cultivate 
tomatoes and cucumbers. They cannot compete with a legal market.

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. White Americans did not 
even begin to smoke pot until a soon-to-be entrenched federal 
bureaucracy began funding reefer madness propaganda.

Marijuana prohibition has failed miserably. 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 plant.

Robert Sharpe, MPA

Policy Analyst

Common Sense for Drug Policy
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom