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Letter: Pot prohibition criminalizes citizens

The Columbian
Published: May 19, 2014, 5:00pm

As a policy analyst for Common Sense for Drug Policy, I agree with Gordon Oliver’s May 11 column, “Marijuana debate far from over.” The people of Washington state are way ahead of the politicians in Washington, D.C. The days when Congress can get away with confusing the drug war’s tremendous collateral damage with a comparatively harmless plant are over.

If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to subsidize violent drug cartels, prohibition is a grand success. The drug war distorts supply and demand dynamics so that big money grows on little trees. If the goal is to deter use, marijuana prohibition is a catastrophic failure. The United States has almost double the rate of marijuana use as the Netherlands where marijuana is legal. The criminalization of Americans who prefer marijuana to martinis has no basis in science. The war on marijuana consumers is a failed cultural inquisition, not an evidence-based public health campaign.

Not just in Washington and Colorado but throughout the nation, it’s time to stop the pointless arrests and instead tax legal marijuana.

Robert Sharpe

Washington, D.C.

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