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. - --- MAP posted-by: Matt