THE REAL REEFER MADNESS

In response to Rockton police Chief Stephen Dickson's op-ed: If
health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms,
marijuana would be legal.

Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose
death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco.

Like any drug, marijuana can be harmful if abused, but jail cells are
inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective as deterrents.

The first marijuana laws were enacted in response to Mexican
immigration during the early 1900s, despite opposition from the
American Medical Association.

Dire warnings that marijuana inspires homicidal rages have been
counterproductive at best. White Americans did not even begin to
smoke pot until a soon-to-be entrenched federal bureaucracy began
funding reefer madness propaganda.

Marijuana prohibition has failed miserably. The U.S. has higher rates
of marijuana use than the Netherlands, where marijuana is legally
available to those older than 18.

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.

- -- Robert Sharpe, policy analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy, Washington, D.C.