MARIJUANA PROHIBITION IS THE PROBLEM

Washington Post David Broder's column on the recent U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration raid on a California medical marijuana club ("What are DEA
bosses smoking? Their enemy is all-too-familiar," Beacon Journal, Nov. 11)
highlighted the absurdity of waging a $50 billion war on consensual vices
at a time when the country faces the all-too-real threat of international
terrorism. Not only should medical marijuana be made available to cancer
and AIDS patients in need, but adult recreational use should be taxed and
regulated. There is a big difference between condoning marijuana use and
protecting children from drugs. Decriminalization acknowledges the social
reality of marijuana use and frees users from the stigma of life-shattering
criminal records. What's really needed is a regulated market with
enforceable age controls. Right now kids have an easier time buying pot
than beer. More disturbing is the manner in which marijuana's black-market
status exposes users to sellers of hard drugs. Marijuana may be relatively
harmless compared to legal alcohol -- the plant has never been shown to
cause an overdose death -- but marijuana prohibition is quite deadly. As
long as marijuana distribution remains in the hands of organized crime,
consumers will continue to come into contact with hard drugs like meth and
cocaine.

Taxing and regulating marijuana is a cost-effective alternative to the
failed drug war.

Robert Sharpe Washington, D.C.

Editor's note: The writer is program officer with the Lindesmith
Center-Drug Policy Foundation, an organization that describes itself as
dedicated to broadening and informing public debate on drugs.