AMERICAN TAXPAYERS APPEAR TO BE THE LOSERS IN THE WAR ON POT

Let's assume for a moment that every reefer madness claim made by
Carmen Ambrosino in his Feb. 16 commentary is true. Are criminal
records appropriate as health interventions? And do punitive marijuana
laws actually deter use? The University of Michigan's Monitoring the
Future study reports that lifetime use of marijuana is higher in the
United States than any European country, yet America is one of the few
Western countries that uses its criminal justice system to punish
citizens who prefer marijuana to martinis.

Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose
death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. The
short-term health effects of marijuana are inconsequential compared to
the long-term effects of criminal records. Unfortunately, marijuana
represents the counterculture to many Americans. In subsidizing the
prejudices of culture warriors, the U.S. government is subsidizing
organized crime.

The drug war's distortion of immutable laws of supply and demand makes
an easily grown weed literally worth its weight in gold. The only
clear winners in the war on marijuana are drug cartels and shameless
drug war. The big losers in this battle are the American taxpayers who
have been deluded into believing big government is the appropriate
response.

The results of a comparative study of European and U.S. rates of drug
use can be found at: .pdf
http://www.monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/espad_pr.pdf

Robert Sharpe

Policy Analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy

Washington, D.C.