Pubdate: Tue, 10 Jul 2007
Source: Metrowest Daily News (MA)
Copyright: 2007 MetroWest Daily News
Contact:  http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/619
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n818/a03.html
Author: Robert Sharpe

THE MARIJUANA CARTEL

Kathleen Parker's July 8th column was right on target. 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 U.S. than any European 
country, yet America is one of the few Western countries that use 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 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 non-traditional consensual vices.

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 and United 
Nations stats: http://www.unodc.org/unodc/global_illicit_drug_trends.html

ROBERT SHARPE,

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