U.S. Government's Marijuana Policy is Nonsensical

[420AM&PM]

Regarding Juliet S. Samuel's thoughtful op-ed of Oct. 10 ("Drug Policy? What Are You, High?"), the drug war is in large part a war on marijuana, by far the most popular illicit drug. Punitive marijuana laws have little, if any, deterrent value. 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. Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to have caused an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. The short-term health effects of marijuana are inconsequential compared to the long-term effects of criminal records. 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 makes 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. The big losers in this battle are the taxpayers who have been deluded into believing big government is the appropriate response to non-traditional consensual vices.



Newshawk: 420AM&PM - 420 Magazine
Source: The Harvard Crimson (MA)
Pubdate: October 10, 2006
Author: ROBERT SHARPE
Copyright: © 2006, The Harvard Crimson, Inc.
Contact: news@thecrimson.com.
Website: The Harvard Crimson :: Harvard's Daily Newspaper Since 1873

 

[merickson]

One more clear winner in the war on marijuana is the private prison industry who are paid (your tax dollars at work) to imprison those that get convicted.

(Sodexo a.k.a. Marriots runs more prisions than any other entity.)

 

[thepothead]

I agree, because in Puerto Rico which is a common wealth of the USA, their laws and punishment is one year in jail for less than 20 grams, a felony, and up to $10000 in fines for that little amount. So the govt out of you getting busted with a little pot is getting you in the jail, they probaly are going to get some work outa you in the jail kitchen, so now they got a cook, and they probaly are going to get some money outta you for the bail and fine and I know its at least $500, and then comes lawyer charges, and more charges....Thats a lot of money those crooked ass politicians are making of your little posession...

Thats messed up man LEGALIZE IT, and STOP HATING AND START PARTICIPATING....