MARIJUANA LAWS CREATE PROBLEMS

In responses to "Police chief against relaxing marijuana laws" (The
Maui News, Jan. 22):

Every major study of the marijuana laws in the last 100 years has
concluded that the only connection between marijuana and hard drugs
is that they are both prohibited and, therefore, sold on the same black market.

The most recent study of the subject was the report by the U.S.
Institute of Medicine on medical marijuana. It reported: Instead it
is the legal status of marijuana that makes it a gateway drug.

In other words, the people who support prohibition are using the bad
effects of prohibition as justification for prohibition. The
conclusion of all the research is that we have a gateway drug policy.
It is the laws that create the problem.

Brian J. Murphy

Paia