THE DRUG WAR

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy recently launched a
newspaper ad campaign purporting to warn parents of the dangers of youth
marijuana use. These ads -- which cost taxpayers more than $150 million per
year -- are little more than scare tactics, spreading misinformation and
distortions.

The government has no business using tax money for this. Exaggerating the
harmful effects of marijuana does nothing to prevent or reduce teen
marijuana use. Such a tactic can only backfire, causing teens to lose trust
in everything authority tells them.

And those politicians who say that no one goes to jail just for possession
or use of marijuana are lying. The reality of marijuana in America is this:
You can go to jail for it. Teens, adults, seriously ill people -- all have
received prison sentences for using marijuana. People have had their cars
or homes taken from them for marijuana possession, and people have been
killed in no-knock searches executed on suspicion of marijuana possession.

Michael Kerner

District coordinator, Libertarian Party of Kansas

Lenexa