Pubdate: Wed, 25 May 2005
Source: Times Union (Albany, NY)
Copyright: 2005 Capital Newspapers Division of The Hearst Corporation
Contact:  http://www.timesunion.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/452
Author: Robert Sharpe
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n793/a05.html

PERHAPS GOVERNMENT SHOULD RETHINK PRIORITIES

Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, is to be commended for 
lending support to medical marijuana legislation. 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 U.S. Drug Enforcement 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,

Policy Analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington, D.C.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom