OFFICIALS TAKE WRONG STANCE ON MARIJUANA

The Bush administration's antagonistic stance toward marijuana is misguided
and counterproductive.

A recent series of full-page newspaper ads -- placed by the Office of
National Drug Control Policy -- pleaded with parents to talk to their teens
about marijuana, and repeated several exaggerations and distortions about
the drug.

Marijuana was made illegal under federal law in 1937, a time when only a
small fraction of the U.S. population had ever used it. By 2001, some 83
million Americans -- or nearly one-third of the population -- had used the
drug at least once. Under a prohibition regime, marijuana use has increased
2,000 percent.

Prohibition makes it easier for teens to obtain marijuana, because the
corner drug dealers don't ask for identification.

While it's true that teens do have limited (albeit illegal) access to
alcohol and cigarettes through lax enforcement of state liquor and tobacco
laws, the complete lack of regulation on marijuana lets teens buy it from
dealers who don't care how old you are as long as you have cash.

The United States, by keeping marijuana illegal for all purposes and all
people, has missed its opportunity to rein in the criminal market that
reaps enormous profits by selling marijuana to teens.

By regulating and taxing marijuana, we could make sure teens have less
access to it -- and put the corner drug dealers out of business.

Al Sniff, Huntington