MARIJUANA USE LEADS TO DRUG CARTELS

Re: "Ex-officer goes to pot for DVDs - Man who sells tips on how to
avoid arrest is running for Congress," Monday news story.

Offbeat former cop Barry Cooper gets more attention in this story than
the serious analysis of marijuana prohibition and the critical role it
plays as the financial backbone of many cartels, as a danger to the
young and as a medical boon to many suffering people.

According to the 1982 National Academy of Sciences report, the last
serious national discussion of marijuana, "prohibition of the supply
of marijuana increases access to and use of other illegal drugs
through the creation of an illegal marketing system for all drugs" and
"[teenage] marijuana sellers may become socialized into other illegal
activities." The study also said that "today's kind of illegal market
for marijuana would probably shrink greatly under a regulatory system
in the same way that illegal alcohol distribution systems have become
so scarce."

We ignored our 1982 national commission (and its 1972 predecessor),
but the Dutch did not. While we made over 15 million marijuana
arrests, they collected taxes and have less marijuana use than we do.

Jerry Epstein,

Houston