MARIJUANA PROSCRIPTION CAUSES NOTHING BUT PAIN

If health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms,
marijuana would be fully legal and there would be no medical
marijuana debate (op-ed, "Upper Freehold takes cover behind flawed
federal law," Dec. 28).

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 rage have been counterproductive at best. 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 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, Washington, D.C. The writer is a policy
analyst for Common Sense for Drug Policy (cspd.org).