Roachclip
New Member
Walter Cronkite's Aug. 9 column was right on target. The drug war is in large part a war on marijuana, by far the most popular illicit drug and arguably New York's No. 1 cash crop.
Marijuana prohibition has done little other than burden millions of otherwise law-abiding citizens with criminal records. The University of Michigan's "Monitoring the Future" study reports that lifetime use of marijuana is higher in the United States than in any European country, yet America is one of the few Western countries that uses its criminal justice system to punish citizens who prefer marijuana to martinis.
Unfortunately, marijuana represents the counterculture to many Americans. In subsidizing the prejudices of culture warriors, the U.S. government is subsidizing organized crime. The drug war's distortion of immutable laws of supply and demand make an easily grown weed literally worth its weight in gold.
The only clear winners in the war on marijuana are drug cartels and shameless tough-on-drugs politicians who've built careers on confusing drug prohibition's collateral damage with a relatively harmless plant.
Common Sense for Drug Policy
ROBERT SHARPE
Sunday, August 15, 2004
https://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=276100&category=OPINION&newsdate=8/15/2004
Marijuana prohibition has done little other than burden millions of otherwise law-abiding citizens with criminal records. The University of Michigan's "Monitoring the Future" study reports that lifetime use of marijuana is higher in the United States than in any European country, yet America is one of the few Western countries that uses its criminal justice system to punish citizens who prefer marijuana to martinis.
Unfortunately, marijuana represents the counterculture to many Americans. In subsidizing the prejudices of culture warriors, the U.S. government is subsidizing organized crime. The drug war's distortion of immutable laws of supply and demand make an easily grown weed literally worth its weight in gold.
The only clear winners in the war on marijuana are drug cartels and shameless tough-on-drugs politicians who've built careers on confusing drug prohibition's collateral damage with a relatively harmless plant.
Common Sense for Drug Policy
ROBERT SHARPE
Sunday, August 15, 2004
https://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=276100&category=OPINION&newsdate=8/15/2004
