Pubdate: Fri, 11 Mar 2005
Source: Exponent, The (IN Edu)
Copyright: 2005 Purdue Exponent
Contact:  http://www.purdueexponent.org/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/883
Author: Robert Sharpe
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n407/a11.html?19993

DRUG WAR WASTES VALUABLE RESOURCES

Your March 9th editorial was right on target. 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. Students who want to help 
end the intergenerational culture war otherwise known as the war on some 
drugs should contact Students for Sensible Drug Policy at www.ssdp.org 
(http://www.ssdp.org/.

The results of a comparative study of European and U.S. rates of drug use 
can be found at http://www.monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/espad_pr.pdf

Robert Sharpe,

Policy Analyst

Common Sense for Drug Policy
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom