HE DID HIS HOMEWORK

Regarding your Dec. 2 editorial on medical marijuana: 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, MPA

Policy Analyst

Common Sense for Drug Policy

www.csdp.org (Washington, D.C.)