ONLY CRIMINALS PROFIT FROM MARIJUANA PROHIBITION

U.S. ambassador Paul Cellucci is kidding himself if he thinks punitive
marijuana laws actually deter use (Gazette, Nov. 10, "New pot law could
cause border gridlock: U.S. envoy"). The University of Michigan's
Monitoring the Future Study reports that lifetime use of marijuana is
higher in the U.S. than any European country, yet the U.S. is one of the
few Western countries that uses its criminal-justice system to punish those
who prefer marijuana to martinis. The short-term health effects of
marijuana are inconsequential compared with the long-term effects of
criminal records. Unfortunately, marijuana represents the counterculture to
many Americans.

In subsidizing the prejudices of culture warriors, 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 are drug cartels and tough-on-drugs
politicians who've built careers on confusing drug prohibition's collateral
damage with a relatively harmless plant. The big losers in this battle are
the taxpayers who have been deluded into believing big government is the
appropriate response to non-traditional consensual vices.

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

Robert Sharpe

Common Sense for Drug Policy

Washington, D.C.