MARIJUANA USED AS EXCUSE

Editor, The Auburn Plainsman:

Kudos to Karen Johnson for an excellent Oct. 24 column on the Canadian
Senate's groundbreaking report on marijuana. After months of research, the
Senate recently concluded that marijuana is relatively benign, marijuana
prohibition contributes to organized crime and law enforcement efforts have
little impact on patterns of use. America's punitive marijuana laws have
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 some drugs 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
interested in drug policy reform should contact Students for Sensible Drug
Policy at www.ssdp.org.

Robert Sharpe

Program Officer

Drug Policy Alliance

Washington D.C.