MARIJUANA POLICIES NEED TO BE CHANGED

Erik Bussa's March 14 column was right on target. The drug war is in large
part a war against marijuana, by far the most popular illicit drug.
Punitive marijuana laws have little, if any, deterrent value. The
University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future Study reports 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 misguided reactionaries in Congress intent
on legislating their version of morality. In subsidizing the prejudices of
culture warriors, the U.S. government is inadvertently 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 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. Students who want to help end the intergenerational
culture war otherwise known as the war on some drugs should contact
Students for Sensible Drug Policy at www.ssdp.org.

Robert Sharpe, M.P.A. program officer Drug Policy Alliance