FIGHT TERRORISM, NOT POT

Re: Paul C. Campos' April 27 commentary, "In reviewing some drugs,
FDA practices twisted science":

If health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms,
marijuana would be legal. 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
migration 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
government bureaucracy began funding reefer madness propaganda.

The reefer madness myths have long been discredited, forcing the drug
war gravy train to spend millions of tax dollars on politicized
research, trying to find harm in a relatively harmless plant.
Meanwhile, research that might demonstrate medical marijuana's
efficacy has been consistently blocked by the Food and Drug
Administration. By raiding voter-approved medical marijuana providers
in California, the very same Bush administration that claims illicit
drug use funds terrorism is forcing cancer and AIDS patients into the
hands of street dealers. Apparently, marijuana prohibition is more
important than protecting the country from terrorism.

- -- Robert Sharpe, Arlington, VA (The writer is a policy analyst with
Common Sense for Drug Policy in Washington, D.C. -- Editor)