LEGALIZE IT, U.S. THINK TANK SAYS

Editor, The News:

Re: Grow houses creating hazards for firefighters (April 25).

The indoor marijuana grow fire hazards exposed by Maple Ridge firefighters
are a direct result of marijuana prohibition. The plants pose no such risk
when growing outdoors. If health outcomes determined drug laws instead of
cultural norms marijuana would be legal.

Alcohol poisoning kills thousands annually. Marijuana, on the other hand,
has never been shown to cause an overdose death. Canadian tax dollars are
being wasted on anti-drug strategies that only make marijuana growing more
profitable.

The drug war's distortion of basic supply and demand dynamics makes an
easily grown weed literally worth its weight in gold. The thriving black
market has no controls for age, making it easier for teenagers to buy
illegal drugs than beer. Politicians need to stop worrying about the
message drug policy reform sends to children and start thinking about the
children themselves.

In Europe, the Netherlands has successfully reduced overall drug use by
replacing marijuana prohibition with regulation. Separating the hard and
soft drug markets and establishing age controls for marijuana has proven
more effective than zero tolerance. As the most popular illicit drug in
Canada, marijuana provides the black market contacts that introduce users
to drugs like heroin. This "gateway" is the direct result of a
fundamentally flawed policy. Given that marijuana is arguably safer than
legal alcohol, it makes no sense to waste tax dollars on policies that
finance organized crime groups like the Hells Angels and facilitate the use
of deadly hard drugs.

I regret not having Canadian statistics for you. If you are interested, a
dated comparison of Dutch vs. U.S. rates of drug use can be found at:

www.netherlands-embassy.org/c_drugstat.html

More recent figures can be found at:

www.drugwarfacts.org/thenethe.htm

Annual Causes of Death in the U.S.:

www.drugwarfacts.org/causes.htm

Our organization's website is at www.drugpolicy.org

Robert Sharpe

Program Officer

The Lindesmith Center

Drug Policy Foundation

Washington, D.C.