COLUMNIST APTLY ACKNOWLEDGES RACIST ROOTS OF POT PROHIBITION

To the Daily:

Jared Goldberg is to be commended for raising awareness about the
racist roots of marijuana prohibition (The war on common sense,
01/23/2007). If health effects instead of cultural norms determined
drug laws, marijuana would be legal. Unlike alcohol, marijuana has
never been shown to cause death from overdose, and neither does it
share the addictive properties of nicotine. Marijuana can be harmful
if abused, but jail cells for abusers are as inappropriate as health
interventions are ineffective as deterrents.

The first marijuana laws were enacted in response to Mexican
migration during the early 1900s, despite opposition from the
American Medical Association. White Americans did not even begin to
smoke pot until a soon-to-be entrenched government bureaucracy began
funding "reefer- madness" propaganda.

By raiding voter-approved medical marijuana providers in California,
the very same U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration that claims
illicit drug use funds terrorism is forcing cancer and AIDS patients
into the hands of street dealers.

Robert Sharpe

The letter writer is a policy analyst for Common Sense for Drug Policy