WAR ON MARIJUANA MAKES LITTLE SENSE

In 1931, with public support for alcohol prohibition rapidly waning,
President Hoover released the report of the Wickersham Commission,
which included a devastating critique of Prohibition's failures and
costly consequences. However, the members of the commission,
apparently fearful of getting out too far ahead of public opinion and
despite their actual findings, officially opposed the repeal of Prohibition.

Two years later, federal alcohol prohibition was history. What
support there is for marijuana prohibition would likely end quickly
absent the billions of dollars spent annually by federal and other
governments to prop it up. All those anti-marijuana ads pretend to be
about reducing drug abuse, but in fact their basic purpose is in
sustaining popular support for the war on marijuana.

What's needed now are conservative politicians willing to say enough
is enough and do what they deep-down know is right. Tens of billions
of taxpayer dollars go down the drain each year for this no-logic,
no-real-facts-to-back-it-up policy. People are losing their jobs,
their property and their freedom for nothing more than possessing a
joint or growing a few marijuana plants.

And all for what? To send a message? To keep pretending that we're
protecting our children? Alcohol prohibition made a lot more sense
then marijuana prohibition does today -- and it, too, was a disaster.

Kim Van Hunnik

Montgomery