PROHIBITION ON MARIJUANA DOES MORE HARM THAN GOOD

The April 4 guest viewpoint by two ex-federal law officers appears to be a
cleverly constructed attack that uses the current scourge of
methamphetamine to denounce medical marijuana, throw cheap shots at some
Democrats and confuse citizens about the effects of prohibition.

The authors declare our attitudes to be at fault. If citizens will just
change their attitudes about drug abuse, they say, abuse will revert to
pre-1960 levels.

Now, I am no fan of methamphetamine. I subscribe to the 1960s hippie
epithet, "speed kills." The use and abuse of chemical stimulants is nothing
new. Amphetamines first were synthesized in Germany in the 1880s.
Methamphetamine originated in Japan in 1919. Until 1965, Benzedrine pills
and related drugs were taken legally by military personnel, truckers,
dieters, college students, etc., because amphetamines were available over
the counter without a prescription.

There was abuse, but nothing like it is today. And that abuse was dealt
with medically, not by police. It's another historical example of the fact
that prohibition does not work. Once a substance is banned and enters a
black market, the age of the users goes down, the volume of abuse goes up,
and civil and criminal corruption rises.

Michael Spasaro and Jim Feldkamp feel that if our young people hear the
words "medical" and "marijuana" together, their attitude toward drugs will
be affected. They don't mention that all of us, and our children, are
bombarded daily by the dubious claims of drug manufacturers.

And actually, growing numbers of our children are being fed "speed" daily.
Desoxyn (methamphetamine hydrochloride) and Ritalin (methylphenidate)
affect the physiologies of children the same way as methamphetamine. The
federal Drug Enforcement Administration says Ritalin is widely abused and
"ranks in the top 10 most frequently reported pharmaceutical drugs diverted
from licensed handlers." And children die from Ritalin use - not from
abuse, just regular, prescribed use.

Legal drugs are toxic and kill more than 100,000 people a year. There is
not one recorded toxic death from marijuana.

There is more to educating our children about drugs than simply telling
them some "drugs are bad."

Spasaro and Feldkamp simplistically suggest that because tobacco use has
been reduced through education, we can prevail in the current war on (some)
drugs. They fail to mention that tobacco is available legally and that
abuse is treated as a medical problem, not by jailing and attacking
citizens with lethal force.

Fanciful theories, re-education centers, more police, more jails and
billions of dollars aside, what are the true social costs of prohibition.

Legal access in the Netherlands has reduced the user population. Marijuana
(cannabis or hemp) has historical, sacred, secular, industrial and
medicinal usage. Hemp sails caught the wind for Columbus. Hemp canvas
covered the Conestoga wagons of Oregon's pioneers. And marijuana has been
known as a medicine throughout recorded history.

Why are some folks so scared about marijuana. Parts of the lumbering,
paper, petrochemical and pharmaceutical industries were glad when a major
competitor was taken off the shelf. And a "war" has raged for more than a
century between institutionalized allopathic medicine and the people's
millennia-old herbal remedies.

In a battle of this war, the citizens of Oregon stood up and voted, in
defiance of the federal government, not to use the power of the state
against the least among us, those afflicted with medical problems.

The United States Constitution says nothing about medicine, and
specifically states that powers not delegated federally belong to the
states or to the people. In my opinion, that and other factors make the
current marijuana prohibition statutes unconstitutional and void ab initio,
or from the beginning.

Feldkamp and Spasaro state the No. 1 tool that they need to fight drug
abuse is a strong economy. The drug war brings great costs to the economy,
while legalization and a properly regulated marketplace would have enormous
economic benefits. The simple ability to grow industrial hemp could mean
millions of dollars annually to the local economy.

The war on some drugs is not about our kids, our community, or our health;
it is about keeping in place a corrupting black market. Vice cops don't
work - never have, never will. Lying to our children doesn't work, either.

What we need to do is to tell the truth, stand up for our rights, vote and
pray that our politicians will have the courage to discuss and find
solutions instead of reruns of the same old tired rhetoric.

Kris Millegan is a publisher and Eugene coordinator of the sixth annual
Global Marijuana March. This year's march starts at noon May 7 at the Wayne
Morse Free Speech Plaza, 125 E. Eighth Ave. MapNews