Pubdate: Wed, 05 Oct 2005
Source: Arizona Daily Wildcat (AZ Edu)
Copyright: 2005 Arizona Daily Wildcat
Contact:  http://wildcat.arizona.edu/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/725
Author: Robert Sharpe
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1571/a03.html

TAXPAYERS THE BIG LOSERS IN WAR ON DRUGS

The drug war is in large part a war on marijuana, by far the most
popular illicit drug.

Marijuana prohibition has 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 United States than any European country,
yet America is one of the few Western countries that uses its criminal
justice system to punish citizens who prefer marijuana to martinis.

The short-term health effects of marijuana are inconsequential
compared to the long-term effects of criminal records. Unfortunately,
marijuana represents the counterculture to many Americans. In
subsidizing the prejudices of culture warriors, government is
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 marijuana 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.

Robert Sharpe

policy analyst

Common Sense for Drug Policy 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake