PROHIBITION IS THE PROBLEM

Police chief Darryl Perry certainly has a right to his opinions about
marijuana, but he needs get acquainted with the facts. ("On the Beat
No. 29," The Garden Island, June 7).

He writes, "Drugs destroy families, whether it's marijuana, crystal
methamphetamine, cocaine, ecstasy, or alcohol." In fact, scientific
research shows it's not nearly that simple.

All drugs don't have the same effects. For example, compared to
marijuana, alcohol is more addictive, vastly more toxic, and
overwhelmingly more likely to cause users to become aggressive or
violent when intoxicated.

Indeed, alcohol-fueled violence is the major social cost of alcohol
use, but have you ever heard of someone beating his wife in
"marijuana-fueled rage"?

Not long ago, The Lancet, one of the world's top medical journals,
published a study ranking legal and illegal drugs by degree of
harmfulness. Marijuana was rated by experts as not only less harmful
than most other illegal drugs, but also notably less harmful than
tobacco and alcohol.

It is the prohibition of marijuana - which subjects otherwise
law-abiding citizens to arrest and jail while consigning the
marijuana industry to an unregulated criminal underground - that
ruins lives, not marijuana itself.

Bruce Mirken, Director of Communications, Marijuana Policy Project,
Washington, D.C.