Saturday, October 10, 2009

Domestic marijuana vs Mexican cartels

There's a clever letter by SSDP's new Campaigns Director, Tyler Smith, in The Washington Post.

What Will Stop the Drug Wars
Saturday, October 10, 2009

Thanks for publishing an account of the economic impact of domestic marijuana production on Mexican cartels' profits Cartels Face an Economic Battle, front page, Oct. 7].

It's disingenuous for Ralph Reyes, the Drug Enforcement Administration's chief of operations for Mexico and Central America, to blame casual marijuana smokers in the United States for the violence in Mexico. Given the opportunity, marijuana smokers would gladly buy American pot. As The Post's story pointed out, that's increasingly what they are doing.

Obviously, our approach to marijuana control doesn't work. The responsibility for violence in Mexico that stems from drug prohibition lies with our lawmakers, who have utterly failed to embrace a more sensible marijuana policy.

If we regulated and taxed marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol, maybe the next headline on this subject would read "Legal U.S. Marijuana Growers Cripple Mexican Cartels; Violence Diminishes."

TYLER SMITH
Campaign Director
Students for Sensible Drug Policy
Washington

Sphere: Related Content

No comments: