MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION WILL BENEFIT SOCIETY

Your Oct. 13 editorial was right on target. The drug war is in large
part a war on marijuana. In which by far, is the most popular illicit
drug in the United States. Marijuana prohibition has done little other
than burden millions of otherwise law-abiding citizens with criminal
records. The University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future Study
reports that lifetime use of marijuana is higher in the United States
than any European country, yet America is one of the few Western
countries that uses its criminal justice system to punish citizens who
prefer marijuana to martinis. The short-term health effects of
marijuana are inconsequential compared to the long-term effects of
criminal records. Unfortunately, marijuana represents the
counterculture to many Americans.

In subsidizing the prejudices of culture warriors, government is
subsidizing organized crime. The drug war's distortion of immutable
laws of supply and demand make an easily grown weed literally worth
its weight in gold. The only clear winners in the war on marijuana
are drug cartels and shameless tough-on-drugs politicians who've built
careers on confusing drug prohibition's collateral damage with a
relatively harmless plant. The big losers in this battle are the
American taxpayers who have been deluded into believing big government
is the appropriate response to non-traditional consensual vices.
Students who want to help end the intergenerational culture war
otherwise known as the war on some drugs should contact Students for
Sensible Drug Policy at www.ssdp.org.

The results of a comparative study of European and U.S. rates of drug
use can be found at: www.monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/espad_pr.pdf.

Sincerely, Robert Sharpe

Policy Analyst rsharpe@csdp.org

Common Sense for Drug Policy www.csdp.org