MARIJUANA LAWS ARE WORSE THAN THE DRUG

Regarding the story "FBI offers reward for missing pot" (June 13): I'm not
surprised to read that 5,000 pounds of marijuana are missing from the
Chatham County sheriff's office.

Thanks to the drug war's distortion of basic supply and demand dynamics, an
easily grown weed is literally worth its weight in gold in urban centers.

Whether or not Chatham law officers were involved remains to be seen.
Nonetheless, with money practically growing on trees, financial incentives
to corrupt law enforcement most definitely exist.

The drug war engenders institutional corruption at levels unseen since
alcohol prohibition in the early 1900s. The corruption, crime and overdose
deaths attributed to drugs are all direct results of drug prohibition.

Taxing and regulating marijuana is a cost effective alternative to spending
billions annually on a failed drug war. Unlike alcohol, which kills
thousands annually, pot has never been shown to cause an overdose death.

Although marijuana may be relatively harmless, marijuana prohibition is deadly.

Illegal marijuana provides the black market contacts that introduce youth
to addictive drugs like meth. Current drug policy is a gateway policy.

In Europe, the Netherlands has successfully reduced overall drug use by
replacing marijuana prohibition with regulation. Dutch rates of drug use
are significantly lower than U.S. rates in every category.

Separating the hard and soft drug markets and establishing age controls for
marijuana has proved more effective than zero tolerance.

Robert Sharpe, M.P.A., Washington The writer is program officer, The
Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation, www.drugpolicy.org