Pubdate: Fri, 28 Jun 2013
Source: Ayer Public Spirit (MA)
Copyright: 2013 MediaNews Group
Contact: http://www.nashobapublishing.com/feedback
Website: http://www.nashobapublishing.com/ayer_news
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5440
Author: Robert Sharpe
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v13/n287/a11.html

MARIJUANA: A COMPARATIVELY HARMLESS PLANT

Regarding your June 21 editorial, if health outcomes determined drug 
laws instead of cultural norms, marijuana would be legal and there 
would be no medical marijuana debate. Unlike alcohol, marijuana has 
never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the 
addictive properties of tobacco. Marijuana can be harmful, 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. Americans did not even 
begin to smoke pot in significant numbers until our federal 
government began funding reefer madness propaganda.

Marijuana prohibition has clearly failed 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 tremendous collateral 
damage with a comparatively harmless plant.

ROBERT SHARPE, MPA

Policy Analyst

Common Sense for Drug Policy

www.csdp.org

P.O. Box 59181

Washington, DC 20012

703-228-1762
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom