MOORE RIGHT ON SCRAPPING POT LAWS

To the editor:

Kudos to Charles Moore for his excellent column on the Canadian Senate's
common-sense alternative to marijuana prohibition (Pot Should Be Legal, The
Daily News, Sept. 20). Unlike some of the more hysterical critics of the
Senate's groundbreaking recommendations, Moore obviously took the time to
read the report. After months of research, the special committee on illegal
drugs concluded that marijuana is relatively benign; marijuana prohibition
contributes to organized crime; and law-enforcement efforts have little
impact on patterns of use. Telling examples of the drug war's failure can
be found very close to home.

The University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future study reports that
lifetime use of marijuana is higher in the U.S. than in any European
country. Yet the U.S. is one of the few western countries that wastes
resources punishing 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 with 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, government is inadvertently
subsidizing organized crime.

The drug war's distortion of the 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.

The results of a comparative study of European and U.S. rates of drug use
can be found at:

www.monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/espad_pr.pdf

Robert Sharpe, Program Officer, Drug Policy Alliance, Washington, D.C.