Pubdate: Fri, 08 Aug 2014
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2014 The New York Times Company
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Jonathan M. Wender

THE MARIJUANA SERIES: OTHER VIEWS

To the Editor:

Regarding your editorial series advocating legalization of
marijuana:

When I ask students in my course on drugs and society if they advocate
reforming federal marijuana laws, their support is unanimous. Yet they
are equally unanimous in saying they don't want their own children to
use marijuana. My students' conflicted reactions offer a microcosm of
the tension at the heart of marijuana reform: How can we move beyond
unbridled prohibition in ways that will tolerate, but not celebrate,
moderate use of marijuana by adults?

Ironically, it is the same marginalized communities that feel the
brunt of the drug war that are now at greatest risk of becoming fodder
for businesses and governments eager to cash in on marijuana. Recent
figures from Colorado show early, troubling evidence of the Pareto (or
80-20) principle in legal marijuana markets: as with alcohol, tobacco
and lotteries, most of the revenue is coming from a small percentage
of heavy users.

Just as some people keep a few chickens without government regulation,
let them grow a few marijuana plants. But the last thing we need is a
profiteering marijuana industry and another regressive sin tax that
will merely trade one set of injustices for another.

JONATHAN M. WENDER

Seattle, July 31, 2014

The writer, a former police officer, is a professor at the University
of Washington.
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