cannabisnews.com: Costs of Enforcing Marijuana Laws 





Costs of Enforcing Marijuana Laws 
Posted by CN Staff on February 16, 2003 at 17:49:07 PT
By Robert Sharpe
Source: Washington Times
Few Americans realize that the United States may soon be one of the few Western countries that uses its criminal justice system to punish otherwise law-abiding citizens who prefer marijuana to martinis. Evidence of the federal government's reefer madness is best exemplified by the kangaroo court trial of Ed Rosenthal, highlighted in Clarence Page's column, "Marijuana jury hoodwinked" (Commentary, Tuesday). By denying an Oakland, Calif., police officer the ability to use California's voter-approved medical marijuana law and the Constitution's 10th Amendment protection of states' rights as a defense, the judge foisted a predetermined guilty verdict onto a grossly misinformed jury. 
Lost in the debate over California's compassionate-use law is the ugly truth behind marijuana prohibition. America's marijuana laws are based on culture and xenophobia, not science. The first marijuana laws were enacted in response to Mexican migration during the early 1900s, despite opposition from the American Medical Association. White Americans did not even begin to smoke marijuana until a soon-to-be entrenched government bureaucracy began funding reefer madness propaganda. Dire warnings that marijuana inspires homicidal rages have been counterproductive at best. An estimated 38 percent of Americans have now smoked pot. The reefer madness myths have long been discredited, forcing the drug war gravy train to spend millions of tax dollars on politicized research, trying to find harm in a relatively harmless plant. The direct experience of millions has contradicted the sensationalistic myths used to justify marijuana prohibition. Illegal drug use is the only public health issue wherein key stakeholders are not only ignored but actively persecuted and incarcerated. In terms of medical marijuana, those stakeholders happen to be cancer and AIDS patients. Robert SharpeProgram OfficerDrug Policy AllianceWashington, D.C.Source: Washington Times (DC)Author: Robert SharpePublished: February 16, 2003Copyright: 2003 News World Communications, Inc. Website: http://www.washtimes.com/Contact: letters washingtontimes.comRelated Article & Web Site:Drug Policy Alliancehttp://www.drugpolicy.org/How The Feds Duped Jurors in Marijuana Trialhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15432.shtml
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