PROHIBITION OF MARIJUANA DOES MORE BAD THAN GOOD

David Schultz has the marijuana "legalization" issue exactly wrong ("Blame
drug suppliers, not users"). Schultz blames violent drug cartels in South
America for the problems associated with the marijuana trade, when in fact
it is the system of prohibition that begets violence.

When a commodity is banned, those who supply it assume great risk, and
basic economic principles dictate that high prices will follow. Under
alcohol prohibition, prices skyrocketed and gangsters made their living
selling moonshine in back alleys. The same conditions exist for marijuana
today.

A system of marijuana "legalization," where the drug is regulated and taxed
like alcohol or tobacco, would eliminate the profits that lure violent
factions into the marijuana trade. Prohibition didn't work in the 1920s
with alcohol, and it doesn't work today with marijuana.

Krissy Oechslin assistant director of communications Marijuana Policy Project