U.S. GOVERNMENT'S MARIJUANA POLICY IS NONSENSICAL

To the editors:

Regarding Juliet S. Samuel's thoughtful op-ed of Oct. 10 ("Drug
Policy? What Are You, High?"), the drug war is in large part a war on
marijuana, by far the most popular illicit drug. Punitive marijuana
laws have little, if any, deterrent value. The University of
Michigan's "Monitoring the Future" study reports that lifetime use of
marijuana is higher in the United States than in 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 have
caused 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 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 on 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

Arlington, Va.