Pubdate: Tue, 29 Jan 2013
Source: Detroit News (MI)
Copyright: 2013 The Detroit News
Contact:  http://www.detroitnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/126
Author: Robert Sharpe
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v13/n043/a09.html

END AMERICA'S REEFER MADNESS

Regarding Marie Myung-Ok Lee's Jan. 25 op-ed, if health outcomes
determined drug laws instead of cultural norms, marijuana would be
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 did not begin
to smoke pot in large numbers until our federal government 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've built careers confusing the drug war's tremendous collateral
damage with a comparatively harmless plant.

Robert Sharpe, policy analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy,
Washington, D.C.
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MAP posted-by: Matt