HEMP CAN'T MAKE YOU HIGH - BAN IS IRRATIONAL

Editor:
Kudos to Berkeley's Students for Sensible Drug Policy activists for
protesting the
Drug Enforcement Administration's ban on hemp products, products that are
incapable
of getting anyone high. The DEA's marijuana jihad seems even more absurd when
placed in a historical context.

Prior to the passage of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 few Americans
had heard of marijuana, despite widespread cultivation of its
non-intoxicating cousin, industrial hemp. The first marijuana laws
were a racist reaction to Mexican immigration during the early 1900's,
passed in large part due to newspaper magnate William Randolph
Hearst's sensationalist yellow journalism. Incredibly violent acts
were allegedly committed by minorities under marijuana's influence.

White Americans did not even begin to smoke marijuana until a
soon-to-be entrenched government bureaucracy began funding reefer
madness propaganda. These days marijuana is confused with 60's
counterculture. This intergenerational culture war does far more harm
than marijuana.

Illegal marijuana provides the black market contacts that introduce
consumers to hard drugs like meth. This "gateway" is the direct result
of a fundamentally flawed policy.

As long as marijuana distribution remains in the hands of organized
crime, consumers will continue to be exposed to sellers of hard drugs.

Taxing and regulating the sale of marijuana to adults is a
cost-effective alternative to the $50 billion war on some drugs. At
present the drug war is causing tremendous societal harm, while
failing miserably at preventing use. Attempts to limit the supply of
illegal drugs while demand remains constant only increase the
profitability of drug trafficking. In terms of addictive drugs like
heroin, a spike in street prices leads desperate addicts to increase
criminal activity to feed desperate habits.

The drug war doesn't fight crime, it fuels crime.

Students who want to make a difference should contact Students for
Sensible Drug Policy at http://www.ssdp.org

Robert Sharpe, M.P.A.
Program Officer, The Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation,
Washington, DC