PUNITIVE LAWS FAIL TO CUT USE OF MARIJUANA

Tony Fisher makes the mistake of assuming that punitive marijuana laws
actually deter use (Letters, Aug. 15).

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 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 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.

Robert Sharpe, Drug Policy Alliance

Washington, D.C.