WAR ON MARIJUANA IS POINTLESS

Regarding Josh Nichols' Oct. 13 column:

The drug war is in large part a war on marijuana, by far the most
popular illicit drug. Marijuana prohibition has done little other than
burden millions of otherwise law-abiding citizens with criminal
records. The University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future Study
reports that lifetime use of marijuana is higher in the U.S. 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.

Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose
death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. 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 who have been deluded
into believing big government is the appropriate response to
non-traditional consensual vices.

Robert Sharpe

Policy Analyst

Common Sense for Drug Policy

Washington, D.C.