END DRUG-WAR MADNESS

Regarding the Chronicle's March 13 article, "Study notes shorter sentences
as drug trafficking cases soar": It disturbs me that federal prosecutors
are focusing their efforts on low-level marijuana crimes instead of
dangerous drug kingpins. Granted, busting "pot-heads" is low-risk for law
enforcement, but that does not excuse America's hypocritical drug policy.

Anyone who has experimented with both alcohol and marijuana knows that
alcohol is the far more dangerous drug. A person who drinks too much booze
runs the risk of losing control of basic bodily functions and dying. A
person who smokes too much pot runs the risk of wanting to take a nap,
after which he or she will awake without a hangover.

Reefer-madness hysteria keeps the drug-war gravy train chugging along at
the taxpayers' expense. But there will come a time when a near majority of
Americans will have experimented with marijuana and recognize it for the
relatively harmless plant that it is.

Then it will become increasingly difficult for the federal government to
get away with filling our bloated prison system with marijuana growers
responding to the financial incentives created by drug laws. The time has
come to acknowledge the parallels between alcohol prohibition and marijuana
prohibition. Drug laws fuel organized crime and violence, which is then
used to justify increased drug-war spending. It's time to end this madness.

Robert Sharpe
Students for a Sensible Drug Policy
Washington, D.C.