FEDERAL DRUG ADS A WASTE OF MONEY

To the editor:

Regarding your Aug. 29 editorial on anti-drug ads:

The most shameless government anti-drug ads appeared amidst beer
commercials during the Super Bowl, just months after the tragic events
of 9/11. The ads blamed casual drug users for funding international
terrorism. The illicit drug of choice in America is domestically grown
marijuana, not Colombian cocaine or Afghan heroin.

The drug czar's misleading drug-terror ads may have led Americans to
mistakenly conclude that marijuana smokers are somehow responsible for
9/11. That's likely no accident. Taxing and regulating marijuana would
render the drug war obsolete. As long as marijuana remains illegal and
distributed by organized crime, consumers will continue to come into
contact with hard drugs like cocaine and heroin.

For obvious reasons, federal bureaucrats whose jobs depend on a
never-ending drug war prefer to blame the plant itself for the alleged
"gateway" to hard drugs.

ROBERT SHARPE

WASHINGTON, D.C.

The writer is a policy analyst for Common Sense for Drug
Policy.