Marijuana is nothing to fear
The editorial “Glamorization of marijuana poses risks for society” (ODE Aug. 7) expressed fear that increased acceptance of marijuana in Canada would lead to its acceptance here.
This is nothing to fear. Despite the worries expressed in your article, marijuana is, according to DEA Administrative Law Judge Francis Young, “one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man.”
In the editorial, the author points out that most of the millions of people who use marijuana lead successful lives. This being the case, what possible justification do we have to put people in jail for using an herb which, in 5,000 years of recorded use, has never killed even one of its users?
 

Kevin M. Hebert
Chicopee, Mass.

Drug policy reform needed
The Aug. 7 editorial is correct in that glamorizing marijuana use is ill-advised. That being said, it’s not the relative harmlessness of marijuana that necessitates a rethinking of America’s punitive approach to drugs, but rather the dangers posed by the drug war itself. Tough drug laws give rise to a lucrative black market in illegal drugs, effectively subsidizing organized crime. The crime, corruption and overdose deaths attributed to drugs are all direct results of drug prohibition. With alcohol prohibition repealed, liquor producers no longer gun each other down in drive-by shootings, nor do consumers go blind drinking unregulated bathtub gin.
There are cost-effective alternatives. In Europe, the Netherlands has successfully reduced overall drug use by replacing marijuana prohibition with regulation. Dutch rates of drug use are significantly lower than U.S. rates in every category. Here in the United States, illegal marijuana provides the black market contacts that introduce users to drugs like heroin. This “gateway” is the direct result of a flawed policy.
Given that marijuana is arguably safer than legal alcohol, it makes no sense to waste tax dollars on failed policies that finance organized crime and facilitate the use of hard drugs. Drug policy reform may send the wrong message to children, but I like to think the children themselves are more important than the message. Opportunistic “tough on drugs” politicians would no doubt disagree.
 

Robert Sharpe, M.P.A.
program officer
The Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation