TAXPAYERS BIG LOSERS IN DRUG WAR

Regarding Michael Rosenthal's November 15 column:

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 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,
government is subsidizing organized crime. The drug war's distortion
of immutable laws of supply and demand makes 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 are the taxpayers
who have been deluded into believing big government is the appropriate
response to non-traditional consensual vices.

The results of a comparative study of European and U.S. rates of drug
use can be found at monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/espad_pr.pdf

United Nations stats unodc.org/unodc/global_illicit_drug_trends.html

Sincerely, Robert Sharpe, MPA

Policy Analyst

Common Sense for Drug Policy