Pubdate: Wed, 11 Sep 2013
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 2013 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/submissions/#1
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Robert Sharpe
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v13/n459/a02.html

A NEW POT POLICY WELCOME

In response to your editorial "The feds step back" (Insight, Sept. 8):

The Obama administration's green light for state-level marijuana 
regulation in Colorado and Washington is long overdue.

The days when our federal government can get away with confusing the 
drug war's tremendous 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. 
Not just in Washington and Colorado but throughout the nation, it's 
time to stop the pointless arrests and instead tax legal marijuana.

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