Pubdate: Thu, 16 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

THE CLOUDED MARIJUANA DEBATE

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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