Pubdate: Sat, 13 May 2006 Source: Daytona Beach News-Journal (FL) Copyright: 2006 News-Journal Corporation Contact: http://www.news-journalonline.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/700 Note: gives priority to local writers Author: Robert Sharpe Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal) Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n577/a05.html MARIJUANA PROHIBITION Re "FDA's reefer madness: Dismissing medicinal marijuana, with prejudice," editorial, May 1: If health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms, marijuana would be legal. As policy analyst for Common Sense for Drug Policy, I know that 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 government bureaucracy began funding reefer madness propaganda. The reefer madness myths have long been discredited, forcing the drug war gravy train to spend millions of tax dollars on politicized research, trying to find harm in a relatively harmless plant. Meanwhile, research that might demonstrate medical marijuana's efficacy has been consistently blocked by the Food and Drug Administration. 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. ROBERT SHARPE Washington, D.C. - --- MAP posted-by: SHeath(DPF Florida)