Pubdate: Fri, 01 Nov 2002
Source: Pahrump Valley Times (NV)
Copyright: 2002 Pahrump Valley Times
Contact:  http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?brd=1125
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1531
Author: Robert Sharpe
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?162 (Nevadans for Responsible Law
Enforcement)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?163 (Question 9 (NV))

TAXPAYERS THE BIG LOSERS

Letter writer Charles A. Hagen needs to consider that punitive marijuana 
laws have done little other than burden millions of otherwise law-abiding 
citizens with criminal records. The University of Michigan's Monitoring the 
Future Study reports that lifetime use of marijuana is higher in the U.S. 
than any European country. Yet America is one of the few Western countries 
that wastes resources punishing citizens who prefer marijuana to martinis.

Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, 
nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. The short-term 
health effects of marijuana are inconsequential compared to the long-term 
effects of criminal records. Unfortunately, marijuana represents the 
counterculture to misguided reactionaries in Congress intent on legislating 
their version of morality. In subsidizing the prejudices of culture 
warriors the U.S. government is inadvertently subsidizing organized crime.

The drug war's distortion of immutable laws of supply and demand make an 
easily grown weed literally worth its weight in gold. The only clear 
winners in the war on some drugs are drug cartels and shameless 
tough-on-drugs politicians who've built careers on confusing drug 
prohibition's collateral damage with a relatively harmless plant. The big 
losers in this battle are the American taxpayers who have been deluded into 
believing big government is the appropriate response to non-traditional 
consensual vices.

Sincerely,

Robert Sharpe, M.P.A.

Program Officer

Drug Policy Alliance

Washington, DC
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart