NO COMMON SENSE IN COUNTRY'S DRUG POLICY

Regarding Dennis M. Clausen's Jan. 9 column, "Trust cancer patients
on medical marijuana." We should trust cancer patients on medical
marijuana, but we shouldn't trust the government on this one. Diet is
the No. 1 determinant of health outcomes. Do we really want big
government monitoring everything that goes into our bodies? And, if
it is the proper role of government to punish citizens for unhealthy
choices, why target marijuana? Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never
been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the
addictive properties of nicotine.

Unfortunately, marijuana represents 1960s counterculture to
reactionaries in Congress intent on forcibly imposing their version
of morality. The United States now has the highest incarceration rate
in the world, in large part due to the war on some drugs. At an
average cost of $26,134 per inmate annually, maintaining the world's
largest prison system can hardly be considered fiscally conservative.
This country cannot afford to continue subsidizing the prejudices of
culture warriors.

ROBERT SHARPE,

Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington, D.C.