Dear Mr. Sharpe,
Sad to say there is an obvious reason for the apparent anomoly that the use of a truly dangerous drug such as meth should be less focused on than the use of marajuana, a durg more akin to liquor that meth. It is very simple, so simple that the reason is usually overlooked. Anyone can grow marajuana in their own backyard. No drug company can compete with that. So the attack against legalization of marajuana is because of the inability to control the distribution. It is also obvious why many of our politians of many stripes find common ground on this issue. They are owned by the drug companies.
Plain and simple.
"The biggest drug problem is meth July 25, 2005 YOUR JULY 15 editorial, ''Meth Math," was right on target. While local governments are struggling with a methamphetamine epidemic, the Office of National Drug Control Policy is spending millions on a reefer madness revisited ad campaign. This reflects a bizarre sense of priorities. A National Association of Counties survey found that the vast majority of county officials report that methamphetamine is the biggest drug problem. These are the public safety professionals who deal with drug offenses on a daily basis. And it's not marijuana that concerns them, but rather meth. Meanwhile, an out-of-touch federal government continues to be obsessed with marijuana, even going so far as to prosecute terminally ill patients who use medical marijuana. The biggest lie to come out of the ONDCP is that new, potent strains of marijuana allegedly make pot a far more dangerous drug. This is nonsense. The only difference between weak and strong marijuana is that potent marijuana requires significantly less smoke inhalation to achieve the desired effect. It's actually less harmful. The tax dollars wasted on the ONDCP's misleading anti-marijuana campaign would be better spent on treatment for methamphetamine addicts.
ROBERT SHARPE Policy Analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington, DC
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