MARIJUANA MISUNDERSTOOD

Regarding your Feb. 3 editorial, if health outcomes determined drug
laws instead of cultural norms, marijuana "bars" 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. The U.S. has higher rates
of marijuana use than the Netherlands, where marijuana is legally
available to adults. 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, MPA

policy analyst

Common Sense for Drug Policy

Arlington, Va.