DRUG WAR IN LARGE PART A WAR ON MARIJUANA

Walter Cronkite's Aug. 9 column was right on target. The drug war is
in large part a war on marijuana, by far the most popular illicit drug
and arguably New York's No. 1 cash crop. Marijuana prohibition has
done little other than burden millions of otherwise law-abiding
citizens with criminal records. The University of Michigan's
"Monitoring the Future" study reports that lifetime use of marijuana
is higher in the United States than in 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.

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.

Robert Sharpe

Policy Analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington