MARIJUANA COLUMN OVERSTATED RISKS, DOWNPLAYED BENEFITS

Pot Would Be Legal If the Laws Were Driven by Public Health Standards
Instead of Culture.

Regarding Mark Publicker's Maine Voices column, ("Medical marijuana
act silent on potential risks," Nov. 29): 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 United
States 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've built careers confusing
the drug war's collateral damage with a relatively harmless plant.

Robert Sharpe

Robert Sharpe, MPA, is a policy analyst with Common Sense for Drug
Policy in Arlington, Va.