DEMONIZING MARIJUANA WRONG

Paul Campos' Jan. 10 column was right on target. 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 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

Program Officer, Drug Policy Alliance

Washington, D.C.