TAXPAYERS REAL LOSERS IN POT WARS

Regarding the DI's thoughtful Oct. 6 editorial, "Pot prohibition
equals blowing smoke," the drug war is in large part a war on
marijuana, which is by far the most popular illicit drug. Punitive
laws have little, if any, deterrent value. 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
with 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 make an easily grown weed literally worth
its weight in gold.

The only clear winners in the war on marijuana are drug cartels and
shameless 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 American taxpayers, who have
been deluded into believing big government is the appropriate response
to nontraditional consensual vices.

Robert Sharpe

policy analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy

Washington, D.C.