Pubdate: Thu, 24 Jul 2014
Source: Sacramento News & Review (CA)
Copyright: 2014 Chico Community Publishing, Inc.
Contact:  http://newsreview.com/sacto/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/540
Author: Robert Sharpe

END FAILED WAR ON MARIJUANA

Re "Cannabis lessons" (SN&R Editorial, July 17):

Regarding your thoughtful July 17 Editorial, California needs to 
catch up with Colorado and Washington. California already has de 
facto legalization, but some California legislators want to restrict 
medical-marijuana access. This would be a backward move. Marijuana 
prohibition provides no societal benefit whatsoever. If the goal of 
marijuana prohibition is to subsidize violent drug cartels, 
prohibition is a grand success. The drug war distorts 
supply-and-demand dynamics so that big money grows on little trees.

If the goal is to deter use, marijuana prohibition is a catastrophic 
failure. The United States has almost double the rate of marijuana 
use as the Netherlands, where marijuana is legally available. The 
criminalization of Americans who prefer marijuana to martinis has no 
basis in science. The war on marijuana consumers is a failed cultural 
inquisition, not an evidence-based public-health campaign. In 
California and throughout the nation, it's time to stop the pointless 
arrests and instead tax legal marijuana.

Robert Sharpe

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