Pubdate: Wed, 15 Jan 2014
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2014 Neill Franklin
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/mUgeOPdZ
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Author: Neill Franklin
Note: Two of three letters

SMOKING OUT THE MEANING IN COLORADO'S MARIJUANA LAW

When will policymakers realize that the prohibition environment, 
which produces dangerous drug dealers who "push" harder drugs on 
their marijuana customers, is the so-called gateway, not the plant 
itself? Regulation and control remove marijuana buyers from the 
dangerous environment of the illicit street-corner drug trade, 
placing them in safe retail stores, and provide the safest-quality 
marijuana. If you want fewer marijuana users using other drugs, 
collapse the profitable marijuana-prohibition environment. There is 
only one way to do that: Legalize it.

Neill Franklin, Silver Spring

The writer, a retired Maryland State Police narcotics commander, is 
executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.  
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