Let me divert your attention from the war on terrorism to another conflict our government is fighting in the name of a “Drug Free America:” the war against the cannabis sativa plant and the millions of Americans who enjoy getting high.

As a knee-jerk reaction to people toking up, this “reefer madness” hysteria began in 1937 when our first drug czar declared that marijuana lead to murder, rape and social degradation; all of which have been scientifically discredited. Sixty-six years and hundreds of billions of wasted tax-payer dollars later, our government is no closer to eradicating marijuana, resulting in obscene profits for drug dealers and terrorists, alike. Can you explain why marijuana is one of the top cash crops in America even with $19 billion spent every year to fund various activities such as deploying troops with flame-throwers to Kentucky and West Virginia and attacking California medicinal marijuana dispensaries that supply terminally ill patients?

Last year, we were informed that if you purchase drugs, you are supporting terrorism. Ironically, it’s our own government that supports terrorism by allowing the criminal element to operate virtually untouched thanks to a $500 billion unregulated and untaxed market. Do you honestly believe that Al-Qaeda deals in alcohol and tobacco for weapons of mass destruction? Of course not.

That’s why Afghanistan is the worlds leading supplier of opium. Thanks to America’s insatiable appetite for “controlled” substances, our U.S. government has used its international prowess to conduct crop eradication missions in many South American countries as well as the Middle and Far East to spray peasant farms with defoliants so we, here, are free from addiction and crime.

Consequently, these spraying efforts abroad poison the ground water in villages which leads to the deaths of peasants and livestock as well as the contamination of soil which in turn is unable to produce any crop for many generations. How would you feel if the Columbian government polluted Ohio’s crops with derivatives of Agent Orange so their people can compete with area soybean farmers?

There are many industrial (hemp) and medical reasons to regulate marijuana. With hemp, the non-psychotropic version of the marijuana plant, over 25,000 products can be introduced into the marketplace generating additional cash flow to the economy and saving forests otherwise cleared for paper. It is also known that the pharmaceutical industry cannot make money from patenting marijuana since it’s a natural substance, so the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn’t recognize the substance as therapeutic for people with glaucoma, AIDS, pain relief, nausea and spasticity.

Currently, more than 60 U.S. and international health organizations — including the American Public Health Association, Health Canada and the Federation of American Scientists — support granting patient’s immediate legal access to medicinal marijuana under a physician’s supervision.

Regardless of the many medical and industrial benefits of marijuana, this war on pot is in the name of protecting our children. So, can anyone explain why Europeans don’t love their children enough to enforce a zero-tolerance approach to marijuana? As if western Europe doesn’t already have a prison population far lower than the US despite having 100 million more citizens. Why are countries like the Netherlands, Denmark, Portugal, Spain, Luxembourg and Italy so tolerant of pot?

Belgium, Canada and the UK are set for decriminalization of the herb which reduces the penalty to a mere parking ticket. Here in the U.S., a college student caught smoking a joint is susceptible to having their financial aid revoked and a life-long criminal record that severely limits future job opportunities.

Don’t Europeans understand that drugs support terrorism?

Doesn’t the youth of these countries understand that marijuana leads to teenage pregnancy, gun violence and the fall of western civilization as we know it? The fact of the matter is that European countries don’t resort to scare tactics and propaganda in the name of “education.” They simply address the issue as managers, not moralizers, as we do in the U.S.

They are all too familiar with the proverbial “kid in the cookie jar” scenario and put provisions in place to offset any potential abusive behavior. Education, prevention/treatment, positive incentives and personal responsibility are all vital to combat drug use, not prison construction and harsh sentences.

With that said, the war on drugs, specifically marijuana, is the U.S. government’s biggest domestic and international failure.

I encourage you, both students and faculty, to attend our meeting Tuesday, March 4 at 9 p.m. in the Bowen-Thompson Student Union Theater room 206 to learn how racism and rhetoric have trumped science and sound rationale in “protecting” our nation’s children from marijuana: the “devil’s weed.”