Pubdate: Tue, 17 Sep 2013 Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA) Copyright: 2013 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/v13/n452/a07.html DRUG POLICY FAILURE Regarding your Sept. 3 editorial "Reefer Sanity," the Obama administration is to be commended for giving Washington state the green light to tax and regulate marijuana. There is absolutely no justification for the status quo. 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 Policy Analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington, D.C. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom