MOST DANGERS OF MARIJUANA ARE RELATED TO ITS ILLEGALITY

The Clemson chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of
Marijuana Laws (NORML) is to be commended for raising awareness of the
senseless harm caused by punitive marijuana laws. 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. 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.

Robert Sharpe, M.P.A. Washington, D.C.