TAXPAYERS ARE THE LOSERS

Regarding your Jan. 1 editorial, the drug war is in large part a war
on marijuana, by far the most popular illicit drug. The University of
Michigan's Monitoring the Future Study reports that lifetime use of
marijuana is higher in the United States than any European country,
yet America is one of the few Western countries that uses its
criminal justice system to punish citizens who prefer marijuana to
martinis. The short-term health effects of marijuana are
inconsequential compared to the long-term effects of criminal
records. Unfortunately, marijuana represents the counterculture to
many Americans.

In subsidizing the prejudices of culture warriors, the U.S.
government is subsidizing organized crime. The drug war's distortion
of immutable laws of supply and demand make an easily grown weed
literally worth its weight in gold. The only clear winners in the war
on marijuana are drug cartels and shameless tough-on-drugs
politicians who've built careers confusing drug prohibition's
collateral damage with a relatively harmless plant. The big losers in
this battle are the taxpayers deluded into believing big government
is the appropriate response to nontraditional consensual vices.

Robert Sharpe

Arlington, Va.