Pubdate: Sun, 03 Jul 2011
Source: Muskegon Chronicle, The (MI)
Copyright: 2011 The Muskegon Chronicle
Contact: http://www.mlive.com/mailforms/muchronicle/letters/index.ssf
Website: http://www.mlive.com/muskegon/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1605
Author: Robert Sharpe
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v11/n407/a05.html

MARIJUANA LAWS HAVE FAILED AS A DETERRENT

Regarding your June 21 editorial on Michigan's medical marijuana law, 
if health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms, 
marijuana would be legal. Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been 
shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive 
properties of tobacco. Like any drug, marijuana can be harmful if 
abused, but jail cells are inappropriate as health interventions and 
ineffective as deterrents.

The first marijuana laws were enacted in response to Mexican 
immigration during the early 1900s, despite opposition from the 
American Medical Association. Dire warnings that marijuana inspires 
homicidal rages have been counterproductive at best. White Americans 
did not even begin to smoke pot until a soon-to-be entrenched federal 
bureaucracy began funding reefer madness propaganda.

Marijuana prohibition has failed miserably as a deterrent. The U.S. 
has higher rates of marijuana use than the Netherlands, where 
marijuana is legally available to adults. The only clear winners in 
the war on marijuana are drug cartels and shameless tough-on-drugs 
politicians who've built careers confusing the drug war's collateral 
damage with a relatively harmless plant.

United Nations drug statistics: www.unodc.org/

Comparative analysis of U.S. vs. Dutch rates of drug use: 
www.drugwarfacts.org/thenethe.htm

The following Virginia Law Review article provides a good overview of 
the cultural roots of marijuana legislation: 
www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/Library/studies/vlr/vlrtoc.htm

Robert Sharpe

Policy Analyst

Common Sense for Drug Policy

Washington, D.C.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom