MARIJUANA TAX AND REGULATION BENEFITS PUBLIC

The drug-terror ads covered in "Anti-Drug Messages Clouded in Smoke?" (CT,
Feb. 27) revisited a campaign premiered amid beer commercials during the
2002 Super Bowl.

International terrorists have apparently caught on to something gangster Al
Capone learned in the 1920s during alcohol prohibition - there are enormous
profits to be made on the black market.

With drug war budgets at risk during a time of shifting national
priorities, drug warriors are cynically using drug prohibition's collateral
damage to justify more of the same.

The illicit drug of choice in America is domestically grown marijuana, not
Colombian cocaine or Afghan heroin. The drug czar's misleading drug-terror
rhetoric may lead Americans to mistakenly conclude that marijuana smokers
are somehow responsible for (the terrorist attacks of) Sept. 11. That's
likely no accident.

Taxing and regulating marijuana would render the drug war obsolete. As long
as marijuana remains illegal and distributed by organized crime, consumers
will continue to come into contact with hard drugs like cocaine and heroin.

For obvious reasons, government bureaucrats whose jobs depend on a
never-ending drug war prefer to blame the plant itself for the alleged
gateway to hard drugs.

Students interested in helping derail the $50 billion drug war gravy train
should contact Students for Sensible Drug Policy.

Robert Sharpe

Program Officer, Drug Policy Alliance