PARKER RIGHT ON TARGET

Kathleen Parker's July 9 column ("Bogarting Sanity In the Drug Wars,"
Press & Dakotan) was right on target.

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 U.S. than any European country, yet
America is one of the few western countries that 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,
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 confusing drug prohibition's
collateral damage with a relatively harmless plant. The big losers in
this battle are the taxpayers who have been deluded into believing
big government is the appropriate response to non-traditional consensual vices.

ROBERT SHARPE

Washington, D.C.