PROHIBITION FAILS

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. 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 as a deterrent.

The U.S. has higher rates of marijuana use than the Netherlands, where
marijuana is legally available to adults over 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, Washington, D.C.

(The writer is a policy analyst with the organization Common Sense
for Drug Policy. -- Editor)