DECRIMINALIZE MARIJUANA

The Dec. 6 article on the Boca Raton stockbroker who is suing Delta
Air Lines for refusing to allow him on a plane with marijuana
highlights the hypocrisy of the federal government's stance on medical
marijuana. While federal agents are busy raiding medical marijuana
clubs in California, a Boca Raton man and six other patients receive
marijuana grown by the federal government. The patients fortunate
enough to enter the government's Compassionate Use Program before drug
war bureaucrats shut it down don't have to worry about marijuana's
worst side effect: jail.

Not only should marijuana be made available to patients in need, but
adult recreational use should be taxed and regulated as well. There is
a big difference between condoning marijuana use and protecting
children from drugs. What's 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 deadly.

Robert Sharpe,
Program Officer The Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy,
Foundation Washington, D.C

Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n2032/a10.html?2107