IRRATIONAL PREJUDICE AGAINST MARIJUANA

Rob Kampia is to be commended for exposing the absurdity of the U.S.
government's irrational prohibition of marijuana ("Medical marijuana works
in Canada," Commentary April 24).

Diet is the No. 1 determinant of health. 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
medical-marijuana patients? Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown
to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of
nicotine.

Unfortunately, marijuana represents the '60s 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 because of 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 Washington, D.C. The writer is policy analyst for Common
Sense for Drug Policy.