MARIJUANA LAWS DON'T DETER USE

In writing about Nevada's ``major gamble," columnist Ivy Main [Aug. 15]
makes the mistake of assuming that punitive marijuana laws actually deter
use. The University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future Study reports that
lifetime use of marijuana is higher in the United States than any European
country. Yet America 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 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. The big losers in this battle are
the American taxpayers, who have been deluded into believing big government
is the appropriate response to nontraditional consensual vices.

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.