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KEEP IT UP NORML

The GW chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws is to be commended for taking on GW's zero-tolerance stance against marijuana.  It would appear that President Trachtenberg has been deluded by the White House Office of National Drug Policy's "reefer madness" revisited campaign.  The marijuana plant has not changed since Trachtenberg authored an article in 1972 arguing for decriminalization.  What has changed is the federal government's willingness to lie and deceive to keep the drug war gravy train chugging along.

If health outcomes determined drug laws, instead of cultural norms, marijuana would be legal.  Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco.  Marijuana can be harmful if abused, but jail cells are inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective as deterrents.  The first marijuana laws were enacted in response to Mexican migration during the early 1900s, despite opposition from the American Medical Association.

Dire warnings that marijuana inspires homicidal rages have been counterproductive at best.  White Americans did not even begin to smoke pot until a soon-to-be entrenched government bureaucracy began funding "reefer madness" propaganda.  By raiding voter-approved medical marijuana providers in California, the very same Bush administration that claims illicit drug use funds terrorism is forcing cancer and AIDS patients into the hands of street dealers.

Apparently, marijuana prohibition is more important than protecting the country from terrorism.

- -Robert Sharpe, alumnus and policy analyst for Common Sense for Drug Policy