LEGALIZING MARIJUANA DOESN'T ENDORSE ITS USE

Re: A full and open debate, Aug. 20.

Justice Minister Martin Cauchon needs to consider that ending marijuana
prohibition does not constitute "endorsing marijuana use." Alcohol is legal
not because the government endorses boozing, but rather because alcohol
prohibition proved disastrous.

Telling examples of drug war 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 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 to the long-term
effects of criminal records. Unfortunately, marijuana represents the
counter-culture 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 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 big
losers in this battle are the taxpayers who have been deluded into
believing big government is the appropriate response to non-traditional
consensual vices.

Robert Sharpe,

Washington, D.C.

Drug Policy Alliance