MARIJUANA HAS BEEN GIVEN A BAD REPUTATION

Regarding your July 19 editorial "Don't do it for the money," if
health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms,
marijuana would be legal. Unlike alcohol, marijuana has not 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. 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 as a deterrent. The U.S.
has higher rates of marijuana use than the Netherlands, where
marijuana is legally available to adults 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 the drug
war's collateral damage with a relatively harmless plant.

Robert Sharpe

policy analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy

Washington, D.C.