GATEWAY DRUG? NO, MARIJUANA SMOKERS SUFFER FROM GATEWAY DRUG POLICY

Editor,

In response to the Observer's August 22 article, "Medical Cannabis for
Sale" Not only should medical marijuana be made available to patients in
need, but adult recreational use should be regulated as well.

North America's marijuana laws are based on culture and xenophobia, not
health outcomes. The first marijuana laws were enacted in response to
Mexican migration during the early 1900's.

An Edmonton woman writing under the pen name Janey Canuck first warned
Canadians about the dreaded marijuana and its association with non-white
immigrants.

The sensationalist yellow journalism of William Randolph Hearst led to its
criminalization in the United States.

Whites did not even begin to smoke marijuana until a soon-to-be entrenched
government bureaucracy began funding reefer madness propaganda.

When threatened, the drug war gravy train predictably decries the "message"
that drug policy reform sends to children. There is a big difference
between condoning marijuana use and protecting children from drugs.

Decriminalization acknowledges the social reality of marijuana use and
frees users from the stigma of life-shattering criminal records. What's
really needed is a regulated market with age controls. Right now kids have
an easier time buying pot than beer.

Although marijuana is relatively harmless compared to most legal drugs --
the plant has never been shown to cause an overdose death -- marijuana
prohibition is deadly.

As the most popular illicit drug, marijuana provides the black market
contacts that introduce youth to addictive drugs like heroin. Current drug
policy is a gateway policy.

Drug policy reform may send the wrong message to children, but I like to
think the children themselves are more important than the message.

Opportunistic "tough on drugs" politicians would no doubt disagree.

Robert Sharpe, M.P.A.
Program Officer
The Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation