MARIJUANA LAWS AND VIOLENT CRIME

To the Editor:

Re "Violent Crimes Undercut Marijuana's Mellow Image" (front page, May 19):

Marijuana-smoking does not cause people to kill; the violence stems from
the large profits to be made as a result of the plant's illegality. When we
had alcohol prohibition, we had people killing each other over alcohol. Now
that alcohol is regulated, there are no shootouts over Budweiser.

New York's marijuana policy involves the locking up of thousands of people
for possession of small amounts of the drug. This has the effect of driving
up the drug's value, resulting in dealers' killing one another for the
right to sell it.

Many feel that the justification for prohibition comes from our desire to
keep marijuana out of teenage hands. Yet because the drug is sold on the
black market, high school students can get it more easily than alcohol.

TONY NEWMAN

New York, May 20, 2001

The writer is director of communications, Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy
Foundation.