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CARTELS WINNING BIG

Trib Sunday columnist Ted Nugent makes 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 in any European country, yet America is one of the few Western countries that still criminalizes those 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 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 have built careers confusing drug prohibition's collateral damage with a relatively harmless plant.  The big losers in this battle are taxpayers who have been deluded into believing big government is the appropriate response to non-traditional consensual vices.

Robert Sharpe

Policy analyst

Common Sense for Drug Policy

Washington, D.C.