Letter: Pot laws are not based on science

Tuesday, April 6, 2004 | 9:14 a.m.

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.

According to a 2002 Time/CNN poll, 47 percent of Americans have now smoked pot. 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.

Patients in states with compassionate-use laws may be protected, but medical marijuana providers aren't. By raiding voter-approved medical providers, the very same U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration that claims illicit drug use funds terrorism is forcing sick patients into the hands of street dealers.

Apparently federal marijuana prohibition is more important than protecting the country from terrorism.

ROBERT SHARPE Washington, D.C.

Editor's note: Robert Sharpe is a policy analyst with Common Sense for Drug Policy, a national nonprofit group working to reform federal drug laws.