Pubdate: Wed, 01 May 2013
Source: Rockford Register Star (IL)
Copyright: 2013 GateHouse Media, Inc.
Contact: http://www.rrstar.com/contact
Website: http://www.rrstar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/370
Author: Robert Sharpe
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v13/n183/a08.html

TAX LEGAL MARIJUANA

Regarding Georgette Braun's April 29 column, the voters of Colorado 
and Washington state are way ahead of the politicians in Washington, 
DC ("Georgette Braun: Cannabis talk here will lighten up sooner or later")

The days when culture warriors in congress can get away with 
confusing the drug war's collateral damage with a comparatively 
harmless plant are coming to an end. If the goal of marijuana 
prohibition is to subsidize violent drug cartels, prohibition is a 
grand success.

The drug war distorts supply and demand dynamics so that big money 
grows on little trees. If the goal is to deter use, marijuana 
prohibition is a catastrophic 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 
pointless arrests and instead tax legal marijuana.

- - Robert Sharpe, Arlington
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom