SAY NO TO THE "AMERICAN INQUISITION"

Your July 24th editorial was right on target.

Like any drug, marijuana can be harmful if abused. However, there is no
evidence that punitive marijuana laws do anything other than burden
otherwise law-abiding Canadians with criminal records.

Consider the experience of the United States, the former land of the free
and current record holder in citizens incarcerated.

Based on finding that criminal records are inappropriate as health
interventions and ineffective as deterrents, a majority of European Union
countries have decriminalized marijuana.

Despite draconian penalties and perhaps because of forbidden fruit appeal,
lifetime use of marijuana is higher in the U.S. than any European country.

The latest drug war fiasco to come out of the U.S. is "compassionate
coercion".

This expansion of zero tolerance does not distinguish between occasional use
and chronic abuse. Jail sentences and open-ended drug testing are applied
exclusively to consumers of non-traditional drugs like marijuana.

Alcoholics and nicotine addicts need not fear President George W. Bush's
legendary "compassion'.

Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death,
nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. Unfortunately,
marijuana represents the counterculture to misguided reactionaries intent on
legislating their version of morality. Canada should follow the lead of
Europe and Just Say No to the American Inquisition.

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