XENOPHOBIA AND MARIJUANA

Regarding Joycelyn Elders's excellent March 26 Commentary piece, "Myths
about medical marijuana": Lost in the debate over medical marijuana is the
ugly truth behind marijuana prohibition. America's marijuana laws are based
on xenophobia, not science.

The country's first marijuana laws were enacted in response to Mexican
immigration, in the early 1900s -- despite opposition from the American
Medical Association. Dire warnings that marijuana inspires homicidal rages
proved counterproductive at best. Many non-Hispanic Americans did not even
smoke marijuana until the government began funding Reefer Madness
propaganda.

The sensationalist myths have long been discredited -- forcing the drug-war
gravy train to spend millions of tax dollars on politicized research, in
which harm is sought in a relatively harmless plant. The experience of
millions of Americans contradicts the outrageous claims used to justify
marijuana prohibition.

Illegal drug use is the only public-health issue wherein the key
stakeholders are not simply ignored but actively persecuted. In terms of
medical marijuana, those stakeholders happen to be people with cancer and
AIDS.

ROBERT SHARPE

Washington

The writer is policy analyst for the interest group Common Sense for Drug
Policy.