MARIJUANA TOPIC FEEDBACK

Amber Corrin is to be commended for her thorough review of the history
of marijuana. Marijuana prohibition has done little other than burden
millions of otherwise law-abiding citizens with criminal records.

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 effects of marijuana are inconsequential compared to
the long-term effects of criminal records.

But marijuana represents the counterculture to many. In subsidizing
the prejudices of culture warriors, the U.S. government is subsidizing
organized crime. The drug war's distortion of the laws of supply and
demand make an easily grown weed worth its weight in gold. The only
winners here are drug cartels and politicians who've built careers on
confusing drug prohibition's collateral damage with a relatively
harmless plant.

Robert Sharpe

Policy Analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy