Pubdate: Tue, 14 May 2013
Source: Montgomery Advertiser (AL)
Copyright: 2013 The Advertiser Co.
Contact: http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/section/SUBMITLETTER
Website: http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1088
Note: Letters from the newspaper's circulation area receive publishing priority
Author: Robert Sharpe

IT'S TIME TO LEGALIZE MARIJUANA IN ALABAMA

Alabama has good reason to consider taxing and regulating marijuana. 
The days when our federal government can get away with confusing the 
drug war's tremendous collateral damage with a comparatively harmless 
plant are coming to an end.

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 failure. The 
United States has 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. 
It's time to stop the arrests and instead tax legal marijuana.

Robert Sharpe

Policy analyst

Common Sense for Drug Policy

Washington, D.C.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom