Pubdate: Mon, 08 Jan 2007
Source: Juneau Empire (AK)
Copyright: 2007 Southeastern Newspaper Corp
Contact:  http://www.juneauempire.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/549
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n001/a03.html
Author: Robert Sharpe

TAXPAYERS ARE THE LOSERS

Regarding your Jan. 1 editorial, the drug war is in large part a war 
on marijuana, by far the most popular illicit drug. 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, the U.S. 
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 confusing drug prohibition's 
collateral damage with a relatively harmless plant. The big losers in 
this battle are the taxpayers deluded into believing big government 
is the appropriate response to nontraditional consensual vices.

Robert Sharpe

Arlington, Va.
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MAP posted-by: Elaine