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PUNITIVE DRUG LAWS DON'T REDUCE USE

Columnist Bob Rinearson on May 7 made the common mistake of assuming that punitive drug laws actually reduce use.  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 criminalizes citizens who prefer marijuana to martinis.

Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco.  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 causes big money to grow on little trees.  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, who have been deluded into believing big government is the appropriate response to non-traditional consensual vices.

Robert Sharpe

Arlington, Va.