Pointless Drug War
Robert Sharpe
June 4, 2008
redOrbit
Regarding your Friday editorial, "Vindictive prosecution": If health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms, marijuana would be legal. Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco.
Like any drug, marijuana can be harmful if abused, but jail cells are inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective as deterrents. The first marijuana laws were enacted in response to Mexican immigration during the early 1900s, despite opposition from the American Medical Association.
Dire warnings that marijuana inspires homicidal rages have been counterproductive at best. White Americans did not even begin to smoke pot until a soon-to-be entrenched federal bureaucracy began funding "reefer madness" propaganda.
By raiding voter-approved medical marijuana providers in California, the very same U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration that claims illicit drug use finances terrorism is forcing cancer and A.I.D.S. patients to seek out street dealers. Apparently, marijuana prohibition is more important than protecting the country from terrorism.
The writer is a policy analyst for Common Sense for Drug Policy. | 
