POT: PROHIBITION FAILS AS DETERRENT TO USE

Re: "Drug laws should matter, even with pot" (editorial, 3-30).

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.

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 have built careers confusing the drug war's collateral damage with
a relatively harmless plant.

Robert Sharpe; Arlington, VA.

(Sharpe is a policy analyst with Common Sense for Drug Policy.)