Letter: Punishing pot use is a waste of time, resources

Wednesday, July 31, 2002 | 9:18 a.m.

Regarding the Sun's July 23 story, "State at front line in pot debate":

It's interesting how the same federal government that's seeking to turn Nevada into the country's nuclear waste dump suddenly cares about state residents when it comes to the war on some drugs.

As November draws nearer Nevadans can expect to hear all sorts of outrageous government claims about the state's marijuana ballot initiative. Federal bureaucrats, like drug czar John Walters, will no doubt earn quite a few frequent flier miles at the taxpayers' expense. Keep in mind that these are the people who claim trucking radioactive waste along state highways poses no serious risk.

The fact is there is no evidence that punitive marijuana laws do anything other than burden otherwise law-abiding citizens with criminal records. Based on findings that jail cells are inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective as deterrents, a majority of European Union countries have decriminalized marijuana. Despite marijuana prohibition and perhaps because of forbidden fruit appeal, lifetime use of marijuana is higher in the U.S. than any European country.

Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause 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 misguided reactionaries in Congress intent on legislating their version of morality. This country cannot afford to continue subsidizing the prejudices of culture warriors.

ROBERT SHARPE

Editor's note: The writer is program officer for the Drug Policy Alliance, a Washington-based group that supports redirecting most government drug control resources from criminal justice and interdiction to public health and education.

Stock market is for insiders

The collapse of Enron and Global Crossing has shown us these corporations are Ponzi schemes. The insiders got rich by fleecing the investors.

Enron insiders (quite a few are now White House insiders) fleeced their investors (many of them Enron employees) for $1.1 billion. Ken Lay's take was $400 million. Gary Winnick, chairman of Global Crossing, fared even better in bankrupting his company than Lay did. Winnick took the investors for $734 million.

If new fortunes are to be made on Wall Street, there have to be new lambs for fleecing. Now President Bush has come up with an idea that is a doozy -- privatize Social Security. Every wage earner in America gambling on Social Security revenue on Wall Street.

I would like to point out to those advocating privatization of Social Security that America's wage earners can find a better deal in Las Vegas than they can on Wall Street. In Las Vegas they have a chance of winning -- slim, maybe, but real. The only winners on Wall Street are the insiders.

VERNON BOSTICK