READERS RESPOND TO HANEMANN

To the Editor:

Kudos to Danny Hanemann for his outstanding column: "Winning the war
on drugs" (July 23).

I'd like to add that many judges and prison wardens have said that 70
to 90 percent of all property crime and violent crime is
"drug-related."

Actually almost 100 percent of all so-called "drug-related crime" is
caused by drug prohibition policies - not drugs. When Coca-Cola
contained cocaine instead of caffeine and sold for 5 cents a bottle,
the term "drug-related crime" didn't exist. Neither did drug lords,
drug cartels or even drug dealers as we know them today.

Many currently employed in law enforcement are opposed to the idea of
re-legalizing all types of recreational drugs. That's because if drugs
were re-legalized, we would need far fewer law enforcement personnel,
far fewer prison guards and no prison builders.

Thus, many now employed in law enforcement and the prison industry
would be looking for a job or washing cars for a living.

Of course, those opposed to re-legalizing drugs because it would
affect their livelihood will not admit it. Instead they will cite
noble reasons such as protecting the children.

As if the current policies are protecting children from
drugs.

Kirk Muse

Mesa, AZ

Dear Editor,

Kudos to Danny Hanemann for an excellent July 23rd column on the war
on some drugs. The drug war is in large part a war on marijuana, by
far the most popular illicit drug. Punitive marijuana 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 to
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
non-traditional consensual vices.

Robert Sharpe, MPA

Policy Analyst

Common Sense for Drug Policy

Washington, D.C.