LOSERS OF DRUG WAR ARE AMERICAN TAXPAYERS

Kudos to Chris Curran Dombrowski for an excellent July 4 column. The
drug war is in large part a war on marijuana, by far the most popular
illicit drug. 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 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 makes
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, policy analyst

Common Sense for Drug Policy

Washington, D.C.