Pubdate: Thu, 06 Dec 2012
Source: Times, The (Trenton, NJ)
Copyright: 2012 The Times
Contact:  http://www.nj.com/times/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/458
Author: Robert Sharpe

LEGAL MARIJUANA A SOURCE OF REVENUE

Marijuana may be fully legal before many New Jersey patients benefit
from the medical marijuana law signed by former Gov. Jon Corzine three
years ago.

Last month, the voters of Colorado and Washington state made it clear
that drug warriors 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 of 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 "fiscal cliff," with imminent cuts to both
defense and entitlement spending. It's time to stop the pointless
arrests and instead tax legal marijuana.

- -- Robert Sharpe, MPA, Washington, D.C. The writer is a policy analyst
for Common Sense for Drug Policy (csdp.org).
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MAP posted-by: Matt