'WHY IS MARIJUANA STILL PROHIBITED?'

Re: Marijuana vending machines - unbelievable (One person's view, Jan. 31)

The flap over marijuana vending machines is another case of being
unable to see the forest for the trees.

Government data since 1975 shows about 85 per cent of high school
seniors annually tell us marijuana is "easy to get," easier than
legal alcohol. This is largely because over a million teens sell
drugs for the illegal profits caused by prohibition. Teens also often
sell other drugs, but marijuana is the financial backbone for many
major cartels, right down to mom and pop operations. Vending machines
might at least reduce teen temptations to sell and might help erase
the gateway to other drugs. The National Academy of Sciences pointed
out in 1982 and 1999 there is no drug gateway, but there is a market
gateway that only exists because marijuana is illegal. Experts in
pharmacology repeatedly rank marijuana as much less dangerous than
alcohol, the drug responsible for 83 per cent of U.S. drug addiction
in 2006. The Dutch have had quasi legal marijuana for over 30 years,
their teens still use less than ours and there have been no
significant problems. The Dutch government has collected taxes, while
we've been spending taxes to arrest over 15 million for marijuana offences.

Our government called for marijuana prohibition in 1937, based on
absurd (media-inflamed) arguments it killed users and made them
violent. The AMA denied this, based on 90 years of experience with
medical use of marijuana, but was ignored. We now know marijuana
toxicity has killed no one and it tends to suppress violence. The
proper question: Why is marijuana still prohibited?

Jerry Epstein

Houston, Tex.