Pubdate: Sun, 15 Jan 2006
Source: North County Times (Escondido, CA)
Copyright: 2006 North County Times
Contact:  http://www.nctimes.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1080
Note: Gives LTE priority to North San Diego County and Southwest 
Riverside County residents
Author: Robert Sharpe
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n040/a04.html

NO COMMON SENSE IN COUNTRY'S DRUG POLICY

Regarding Dennis M. Clausen's Jan. 9 column, "Trust cancer patients 
on medical marijuana." We should trust cancer patients on medical 
marijuana, but we shouldn't trust the government on this one. Diet is 
the No. 1 determinant of health outcomes. Do we really want big 
government monitoring everything that goes into our bodies? And, if 
it is the proper role of government to punish citizens for unhealthy 
choices, why target marijuana? Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never 
been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the 
addictive properties of nicotine.

Unfortunately, marijuana represents 1960s counterculture to 
reactionaries in Congress intent on forcibly imposing their version 
of morality. The United States now has the highest incarceration rate 
in the world, in large part due to the war on some drugs. At an 
average cost of $26,134 per inmate annually, maintaining the world's 
largest prison system can hardly be considered fiscally conservative. 
This country cannot afford to continue subsidizing the prejudices of 
culture warriors.

ROBERT SHARPE,

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