Newshawk: Published Letters Awards www.mapinc.org/lteaward.htm

LETTER OF THE WEEK

HARPER WANTS MORE CRIMINALS

RE: “Call for prisons clashes with crime stats”, Dave Breakenridge, Aug. 9.

By now, it should be apparent that what the Harperites are doing is
trying to manufacture inmates. They want to impose a U.S.-style,
for-profit prison system onto Canada. This policy has been wildly
successful in the U.S. – what with more inmates than any country in
the history of the world and enormous debts. Meanwhile, a handful of
jailers get rich at taxpayers’ expense. The really scary part is
almost a third of the country is willing to ignore these facts and
allow Harper to blow $10 billion on jails, instead of making $10
billion off of legalized pot.

Russell Barth

Federally Licensed Medical Marijuana User

Drug Reform Analyst and Consultant

Educators for Sensible Drug Policy

Pubdate: Tue, 10 Aug 2010

Source: Calgary Sun, The (CN AB)

Newshawk: Published Letters Awards www.mapinc.org/lteaward.htm

ALMOST RIGHT ABOUT DRUGS

Re: “Mexico’s Sounds of Silence – No news is bad news when media self-censors,” Thursday Editorials. The Dallas Morning News almost got it right.

The ghastly violence in Mexico is not about drugs.

It’s about money, and we can stop it. Drug cartels don’t have a valuable product.

The drugs they sell are common and plentiful.

All they have and all they are fighting for is an illegal distribution system. There were no beheadings during most of the history of Mexico and the U.S., when any man, woman or child could buy these products easily, cheaply and legally.

No journalists are murdered today by the distributors of the most popular Mexican drugs, beer and tequila. U.S. drug prohibition laws allowed this untenable situation to develop.

Doing prohibition harder and harder and hoping for a different result will not stop it. The violence will cease when U.S. laws allow competition from well-regulated, legal sellers to put the cartels out
of business.

Suzanne Wills, Drug Policy Forum of Texas, Dallas

Pubdate: Sun, 8 Aug 2010

Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)

Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n000/a031.html

Newshawk: Published Letters Awards www.mapinc.org/lteaward.htm

LETTER OF THE WEEK

FACE THE FACTS ON MARIJUANA

As a representative of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, the primary
organization working to reduce the negative impact that both drug
abuse and drug policies have on young people and students, I couldn’t
disagree more with the statements made by Lyndon E. Lafferty (“Don’t
let the marijuana myth live on,” July 25).

Claiming that more teens are in treatment for marijuana than any
other drug is a distortion. They aren’t there because they think
they have a problem. They are placed into treatment because they
have been arrested for marijuana possession and given an
ultimatum. Getting arrested and thrown into the criminal justice
system is the biggest problem marijuana has caused many of these
young people. I saw this firsthand during my time as a substance
abuse counselor with teens.

Mr. Lafferty conveniently leaves out an important fact: Marijuana
prohibition makes it easier for young people to buy the drug in their
schools. You don’t see kids selling six packs of beer or cartons of
cigarettes in the hallways; you see them selling marijuana. That’s
because it’s unregulated, uncontrolled and highly
lucrative. According to the Monitoring the Future Survey, more 10th
graders now smoke pot than cigarettes. When more youth are using a
drug that is illegal than a drug that is tightly regulated and highly
taxed, it’s time to admit that marijuana prohibition doesn’t work.

I hope California voters will vote “yes” on Proposition 19.

Jonathan Perri

Associate Director

Students for Sensible Drug Policy

Pubdate: Thu, 29 Jul 2010

Source: Times-Herald, The (Vallejo, CA)

Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n590/a03.html

Newshawk: Published Letters Awards www.mapinc.org/lteaward.htm

LETTER OF THE WEEK

END WAR ON MARIJUANA

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) famously defined insanity as “doing the
same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Nothing better describes the war on drugs. The 40-year war on drugs
has cost U.S. taxpayers $1 trillion, thousands of lives and broken
up families and failed to meet any of its goals.

Cocaine, heroin and marijuana were sold in drug stores without a
prescription as medicine and treated as such in the early years of
the last century. Yet the deadly drug of tobacco is legal (because
it’s taxed) which kills hundreds of thousands a year.

Sadly many in law enforcement have died from this deadly drug. The
good news is that many in law enforcement are joining Law Enforcement
Against Prohibition. Marijuana needs to be legalized and not
advertised (glorified). This would reduce the use of other
drugs. Prohibition only helps the gangs. It’s good for their business.

Good sources of information on this issue are Marijuana Policy
Project, www.mpp.org, and Drug Policy Alliance, www.drugpolicy.org,
for a start.

Kevin Doran

Ogdensburg

Pubdate: Wed, 21 Jul 2010

Source: Watertown Daily Times (NY)

Newshawk: Published Letters Awards www.mapinc.org/lteaward.htm

LETTER OF THE WEEK

NONSTONERS WANT LEGALIZATION TOO

So Louis R. “Skip” Miller (Opinion, July 12) thinks that the only
people who support legalizing marijuana are those who want to get stoned.

Sorry, but he’s wrong.

I don’t smoke pot, but I’ll vote to legalize it. Why? It’s a concept
called “freedom.” I know, the Skip Millers of this world never take
freedom into account when deciding on all the ways that government
should protect us from ourselves.

Some of us, however, believe that adults in a free society shouldn’t
be paying taxes to hire bureaucrats to tell us what we can eat, smoke
or drink.

But use caution if you do consider this viewpoint.

The concept of freedom is, in itself, quite intoxicating.

Joe Greco

Los Altos

Pubdate: Tue, 13 Jul 2010

Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)

Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n000/a021.html