Pubdate: Sun, 02 Dec 2012
Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
Copyright: 2012 The Dallas Morning News, Inc.
Contact: http://www.dallasnews.com/cgi-bin/lettertoed.cgi
Website: http://www.dallasnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117
Author: Robert Sharpe

PROHIBITION HAS FAILED

The voters of Colorado and Washington state have made it clear the 
federal government can no longer get away with confusing the drug 
war's collateral damage with a comparatively harmless plant.

If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to subsidize violent drug 
cartels, prohibition is a success. The drug war distorts supply and 
demand dynamics so that big money grows on little trees. If the goal 
of marijuana prohibition is to deter use, prohibition is a failure. 
The United States has double the rate of marijuana use as the 
Netherlands, where marijuana is legal.

The criminalization of Americans who prefer marijuana to martinis has 
no basis in science. The war on marijuana consumers is a failed 
cultural inquisition, not an evidence-based public health campaign.

As a nation, we face a looming fiscal cliff. It's time to stop the 
pointless arrests and instead tax legal marijuana.

Robert Sharpe,

Policy Analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy,

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