Pubdate: Sun, 17 Nov 2013
Source: Miami Herald (FL)
Copyright: 2013 Miami Herald Media Co.
Contact:  http://www.miamiherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/262
Author: Robert Sharpe
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v13/n539/a08.html

WAR ON POT A FAILURE

Re Fred Grimm's Nov. 9 column, Florida GOP fights yesterday's war on 
pot: The days when politicians 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. If 
the goal is to deter use, marijuana prohibition is a catastrophic failure.

The United States has double the rate of marijuana use as that of the 
Netherlands, where marijuana is legal. Turning into criminals those 
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