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US CA: LTE: Less Crime, More Addiction

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URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n279/a06.html
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Votes: 0
Webpage: http://www.modbee.com/opinion/letters/story/623756.html
Pubdate: Sun, 08 Mar 2009
Source: Modesto Bee, The (CA)
Copyright: 2009 The Modesto Bee
Contact:
Website: http://www.modbee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/271
Author: Elton Nelson

LESS CRIME, MORE ADDICTION

Dan Walters, in his Feb.  26 column ( "High time to legalize, regulate, tax marijuana," Page A-11 ), argued that the legalization of marijuana would result in a decrease in crime cases, save the government the costs of incarcerations involving marijuana and be a source of revenue for the taxes that could be collected for the legal sales of marijuana.  If the results of Prohibition are any indication, as Walters pointed out, legalizing marijuana would indeed reduce crime associated with this drug.  However, it would also increase the usage of and, for many users, the addiction to this drug.  It is my understanding that when alcohol was legalized after the Prohibition era, alcoholism increased.

Furthermore, marijuana is often a gateway drug for heavier street drugs, such as cocaine, heroin and meth.  So making marijuana legal would most likely increase the usage of, addiction to and crimes associated with these drugs and the financial and other costs to society from the increased addictions to these drugs.  It would be wise to consider carefully the unintended consequences of legalizing marijuana.

Elton Nelson

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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin

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