OPINION LETTERS

摘要

From Ullrich Fischer Everyone who has studied the science and history of marijuana use agrees that prohibition does more harm than good and should end. The votes to legalise it in the states of Colorado and Washington (17 November 2012, p 6) are great steps towards a more rational policy for the US and the rest of the world, given most countries will follow its lead. The war on drugs has been an abject failure to learn from the prohibition of alcohol. Ending it would free up the equivalent of about $100 billion per year of resources for productive uses and save thousands of people who are currently criminalised from the resulting needless exclusion from the job market.