THE TRUTH ABOUT DRUGS WILL EVENTUALLY COME OUT

Thank you for your enlightened editorial on the misdirected "war on
drugs" (June 18). The suppression of scientific research by government
agencies that stand to benefit from "war business as usual" is not
new. In 1945, the LaGuardia Commission, a group of medical researchers
convened by the mayor of New York City, issued a report on marijuana
that suggested it had no negative effects and, in fact, had some
benefits (the ones that have since led to the use of medical marijuana).

Harry Anslinger, whose Food and Drug Administration was raking in huge
government dollars to fight the "marijuana crisis" created by
Anslinger's own propaganda, successfully pressured the Journal of the
American Medical Association not to publish the scientific results.
They were published, anyway, as the LaGuardia Report by the mayor himself.

In the United States, judges and commentators from across the
political spectrum have decried the failed war-on-drugs approach and
pointed out the huge benefits of legalizing and taxing drug use.
Although the spectre of mass addiction in the event of legalization is
raised, countries where these drugs are legal have lower usage rates
than the U.S.

Don Dutton

Professor, Psychology Department, University of B.C.