TAXPAYERS LOSE OUT IN THE WAR ON DRUGS

Columnist Steve Chapman should be commended for exposing the myth
that laws criminalizing drugs deter their use ("The phony threat of
liberal drug laws," Opinion * Commentary, May 22). The drug war is in
large part a war on marijuana, which is by far the most popular
illicit drug. The University of Michigan's "Monitoring the Future"
study reports that lifetime use of marijuana is higher in the U.S.
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.

The short-term health effects of marijuana are inconsequential
compared with the long-term effects of criminal records. Yet the drug
war's distortion of the 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 have built careers on confusing drug
prohibition's collateral damage with the effects of a relatively
harmless plant. The big losers are the American taxpayers who have
been deluded into believing big government is the appropriate
response to nontraditional vices.

Robert Sharpe

Washington

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