PERHAPS GOVERNMENT SHOULD RETHINK PRIORITIES

Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, is to be commended for
lending support to medical marijuana legislation. If health outcomes
determined drug laws instead of cultural norms, marijuana would be legal.
Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death,
nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. Marijuana can be
harmful if abused, but jail cells are inappropriate as health interventions
and ineffective as deterrents.

The first marijuana laws were enacted in response to Mexican migration
during the early 1900s, despite opposition from the American Medical
Association.

Dire warnings that marijuana inspires homicidal rages have been
counterproductive at best. White Americans did not even begin to smoke pot
until a soon-to-be entrenched government bureaucracy began funding reefer
madness propaganda.

By raiding voter-approved medical marijuana providers in California, the
very same U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration that claims illicit drug use
funds terrorism is forcing cancer and AIDS patients into the hands of
street dealers. Apparently marijuana prohibition is more important than
protecting the country from terrorism.

ROBERT SHARPE,

Policy Analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington, D.C.