HYPOCRITICAL DRUG WAR

I would like to thank Laura Sahramaa for raising awareness of the Higher
Education Act's denial of student loans to youth convicted of drug offenses
in her Nov. 20 column, "Drug law trips over contradictions."

Anyone born into a wealthy family need not fear the impact of HEA. Instead
of empowering at-risk students with a college degree, HEA limits career
opportunities and increases the likelihood that those affected will resort
to crime.

Speaking of crime, convicted rapists and murders still are eligible for
federal student loans.

The hypocrisy of the drug war is glaring. Alcohol poisoning kills thousands
annually. Tobacco is one of the most addictive substances known to man.
Marijuana, on the other hand, is not physically addictive and has never
been shown to cause an overdose death. If health outcomes determined drug
laws instead of cultural norms, marijuana would be legal. The first
marijuana laws were a racist reaction to Mexican immigration during the
early 1900s, passed in large part due to newspaper magnate William Randolph
Hearst's sensationalist yellow journalism. 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 1960s 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 cocaine.

This "gateway" is the direct result of a fundamentally flawed policy.
Taxing and regulating marijuana is a cost-effective alternative to the $50
billion drug war.

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

Robert Sharpe, M.P.A.

Program Officer

The Lindesmith Center - Drug Policy Foundation