Pubdate: Fri, 14 Dec 2012
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA)
Copyright: 2012 PG Publishing Co., Inc.
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/pm4R4dI4
Website: http://www.post-gazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/341
Author: Robert Sharpe
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v12/n638/a04.html

MARIJUANA USE

Regarding Tony Norman's Dec. 11 column ("Will Obama Let the Reefer 
Madness Go On?"), 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. It's time to stop the 
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