STAFF POSITION ON POT IGNORES GROWING COSTS

Letter To The Editors

To the editors:

I'm not sure what the Harvard Crimson editorial staff has been smoking, but
its recent piece in favor of marijuana legalization reflects by-gone
science and druggie-drivel hardly worth so much space in a prestigious
college paper (Editorial, "Decriminalize Marijuana," April 12).

Playing into the hands of billionaire pro-legalization forces like George
Soros, the Staff wrongly gives the impression that a quarter of a million
harmless pot smokers were arrested and locked up in jail. In fact, that
number represents many different contexts: people who plead down from
trafficking to possession; people with other more serious crimes which they
have been arrested for, in addition to marijuana use; or those who are
cited for smoking pot in a public place and are fined about $100, as with a
parking ticket. As the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency reported, only 7,000
people are in federal and state jails combined where marijuana possession
was their most serious offense. Our criminal justice system is not focused
at all on pot smokers; indeed, 12 states have decriminalized marijuana
since 1978. That isn't to say our current policy is perfect, but it is this
precise drug strategy that has led to a reduction, since 20 years ago, in
regular drug users by almost half, a drop by adolescents of two- thirds and
a cocaine rate plummeting more than 75 percent. I guess those statistics
were too inconvenient to put in an article which sounds straight like it
would come straight out of the mouths of Cheech and Chong.

How inconvenient too was it to simply describe the Dutch pot experience yet
forget to report the consequences: a 200 percent rise in adolescent
marijuana use since the commercialization and legalization of the drug in
that country and a transformation of the Netherlands to the
ecstasy-producing capital of the world.

Even President Jimmy Carter, whom you quote from 25 years ago, is now
anti-marijuana. The 1972 commission report you cite is completely out of
date since it relies on the scientific knowledge known only up to that
date-no wonder only long-time drug legalization advocates seem to still
mention it. It would be like touting cocaine as a safe drug now because in
1900 there was no scientific evidence yet to show its harms. In fact,
marijuana use has now been shown to adversely affect those regions involved
in coordinating and regulating body movements (including contributing to
car crashes, second only to alcohol alone); those involved in learning,
memory and stress response; those that integrate the cognitive functions;
and the reward center of the brain. Moreover, one marijuana cigarette is
akin to four tobacco cigarettes in terms of the amount of tar, five tobacco
cigarettes in terms of the amount of carbon monoxide intake and ten tobacco
cigarettes with respect to the amount of damage to the airways. It is no
wonder that half of teens and adolescents in substance abuse treatment are
there for marijuana only. The current scientific consensus is that
marijuana is not a benign drug. Solid social and scientific research
provides the basis for maintaining our current laws-even if they are as
soft as parking tickets-so as to not make marijuana commercially available.

Kevin A. Sabet

Oxford, England

April 14, 2002