DEAL BREAKER

Thank you for publishing Ethan A. Nadelmann's outstanding feature
article, "An end to marijuana prohibition," last week. I'd like to add
that the prime beneficiaries of our current marijuana criminalization
policies are drug dealers and drug cartels. Marijuana re-legalization
would put these people out of business overnight, just as alcohol
re-legalization put the bootleg alcohol producers and sellers out of
business overnight.

Alcohol prohibition didn't stop people from buying and drinking
alcohol. It just stopped people from buying their alcohol from legal,
regulated and taxed sources. Marijuana prohibition isn't stopping
people from buying and using marijuana. It's just stopping people from
buying their marijuana from legal, regulated and taxed sources. Only
legal products can be regulated, controlled and taxed by our government.

Speaking of taxes, it seems to me that non-marijuana users would be
very much in favor of taxing a product that they don't use. Around
here, taxing someone else's vice is very popular.

Kirk Muse

Mesa, Arizona