LEGALIZING MARIJUANA COULD LEAD TO LESS CRIME

To the Editor of the Tufts Daily:

I'm writing about your editorial, "On crime and common sense" (Mar.
1, 2006). There is only one country in the world where marijuana is
officially legal for adults to grow and possess small quantities -
The Czech Republic. (In the Netherlands, marijuana is quasi-legal -
not officially legal.)

The Czech overall drug arrest rate is one per 100,000 population. The
United States' overall drug arrest rate is 585 per 100,000 population.

The Czech robbery rate is two per 100,000 population. The United
States' robbery rate is 145.9 per 100,000 population, according to the FBI.

According to our drug war cheerleaders, tolerant marijuana laws cause
people to use other, much more dangerous drugs, like meth and heroin.

Obviously, this doesn't happen in the Czech Republic. Why not?

Could it be that when people can legally obtain marijuana at an
affordable price, they tend not to use or desire any other recreational drugs?

Could it be that marijuana legalization actually creates a roadblock
to hard drug use - not a gateway?

Kirk Muse

Mesa, Arizona

P.S: The source for the 145.9 robberies per 100,000 population
[statistic] is from the FBI Uniform Crime Reports, 2002 final
statistics. [A] source for [the] Czech Republic's marijuana
legalization policy: "A Czech Toke on Freedom," by Jeffrey Fleishman
in the Los Angeles Times, Jan. 24 2006.