US DRUG POLICY OUT OF WHACK WITH REST OF WORLD'S

To the Editor:

How nice of Secretary of State Colin Powell to warn prospective spring
break travelers that American-style zero tolerance awaits them in foreign
countries. Students who end up in third world jails have the U.S. State
Department to thank for their misfortune. The failed drug war would have
ended decades ago if the United States didn't use its superpower status to
export a dangerous moral crusade around the globe. The drug war is in large
part a war against marijuana, by far the most popular illicit drug.
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 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. 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.

The results of a comparative study of European and U.S. rates of drug use
can be found at: http://www.monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/espad_pr.pdf *MTF
is funded by the U.S. government

Robert Sharpe

Program Officer

Drug Policy Alliance