LEGALIZE MARIJUANA

REGARDING THE excellent Dec. 7 editorial on medical marijuana: the plant
has been used medicinally for thousands of years. In 1999, a federally
commissioned Institute of Medicine report concluded that there are
circumstances in which smoking marijuana for medical uses is recommended.

Marijuana is one of the most studied plants around. Nonetheless, entrenched
interests riding the drug war gravy train continue to claim further
research is needed.

Not only should medical marijuana be made available to patients, but adult
recreational use should be regulated as well. The reason for this is
simple: leaving the distribution of popular recreational drugs in the hands
of organized crime puts children at great risk.

The thriving black market is very much youth oriented. Illegal drug dealers
don't ID for age, but they do push profitable, addictive drugs like heroin.
Sensible regulation is desperately needed to undermine the black market and
restrict access to drugs.

Marijuana is the most popular illicit drug. Compared to alcohol and
tobacco, marijuana is relatively harmless. Yet marijuana prohibition is
deadly. While there is nothing inherent in marijuana that compels users to
try harder drugs, its black market status puts users in contact with
criminals who push them.

Current drug policy is, effectively, a gateway policy. As counterintuitive
as it may seem, replacing marijuana prohibition with regulation would do a
better job protecting children than the failed drug war.

As for medical marijuana, doctors should decide what is best for their
patients, not Supreme Court Judges or drug warriors.

Robert Sharpe, MPA, Program Officer, The Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy
Foundation, Washington, DC